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Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD, during an interview with Mad Money, broadcasting from CNBC’s San Francisco bureau on November 21, 2019.

Jacob Jimenez | CNBC

The big winner for investors this year in the generative AI boom has been Nvidia. The company’s stock price rocketed 234% as demand soared for the chipmaker’s processors that are designed to handle the hefty compute loads required to train and run large language models.

The LLMs from Microsoft-backed OpenAI and others relying on Nvidia’s technology can turn users’ text-based prompts into pictures, poems or PowerPoint presentations.

While Nvidia sucked up the bulk of the profits — net income through the first three quarters of the year jumped sixfold from 2022 — it wasn’t the only stock that attracted Wall Street’s attention in the race to make money from artificial intelligence.

Software vendors CrowdStrike, HubSpot and Salesforce all at least doubled this year, far outperforming the Nasdaq, which was up 43% as of Friday’s close. Those companies got a boost after announcing enhancements that draw on generative AI.

But when it comes to the hardware and infrastructure underlying the advancements in AI and ensuring that there’s enough capacity going forward, investors are looking at who, other than Nvidia, stands to gain. The iShares Semiconductor ETF has rallied 64% this year. The data center is another source of optimism, and a few cloud service providers are positioned to win business as organizations boost spending on technology to help them run generative AI services.

Here are three other stocks gaining momentum due to the generative AI wave:

AMD

As the company whose technology is viewed as most likely to challenge Nvidia’s AI chip monopoly, Advanced Micro Devices has a big cheering section in the software developer community. The stock is up 116% for the year as of Friday’s close.

AMD just launched its MI300X AI processors, pursuing a market for AI chips that CEO Lisa Su projects will climb to $400 billion over the next four years. Meta announced in December its plans to use the new processors, and Microsoft is also a committed customer.

Su pointed to performance advantages in comparison with Nvidia’s H100 chip.

“AMD remains extremely well positioned to take advantage of the rapidly expanding AI TAM, as they continue to stack up customer partnerships and roll out products with impressive (and extremely competitive) performance metrics,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a note to clients after the announcement earlier this month.

The stock rose rose almost 10% the day after the launch.

Arista Networks

Since its public market debut almost a decade ago, Arista has been gaining on Cisco in the market for data center networking gear. Excitement around its position in AI helped push the stock up 96% this year.

President and CEO of Arista Networks, Jayshree Ullal.

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

In October, Arista added AI to a key customer segment so it’s now called Cloud and AI Titans. More than 40% of the company’s 2022 revenue came from Meta and Microsoft. The following month, Arista CEO Jayshree Ullal announced a goal of $750 million in 2025 AI networking revenue, prompting Citi analysts to lift their price target on the stock to $300 from $220.

Companies have been choosing Arista hardware to connect their GPUs to the internet. As models get bigger and workloads more complex, Arista has an opportunity to connect GPUs to one another to help scale the technology.

Arista executives see a moderation in enterprise spending in 2024 after years of cloud expansion, with organizations testing out systems before making large-scale AI deployments that could start in 2025.

Cloudflare

For years, Cloudflare has ensured that online content can be quickly served up to end users by creating a global network of data centers that protects websites from attempted takedowns.

One key customer is OpenAI. When a user attempts to access OpenAI, Cloudflare’s technology verifies that it’s a person and not a bot on the other end. The company is now aiming to become part of the fabric for running AI models and ensuring rapid response. In September, the company announced a service called Workers AI, which runs on Nvidia’s GPUs and will be spread across 100 cities.

“With a consumption pricing model, these services could drive meaningful upside to revenue as adoption ramps through 2024,” Morgan Stanley analysts, who have the equivalent of a hold rating on the stock, wrote in a November report.

Cloudflare shares have jumped 87% so far in 2023.

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Here are the SpaceX employees who were elected to run Musk’s new company town of Starbase, Texas

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Here are the SpaceX employees who were elected  to run Musk's new company town of Starbase, Texas

The SpaceX Starship sits on a launch pad at Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 12, 2024, ahead of the Starship Flight 5 test. The test will involve the return of Starship’s Super Heavy Booster to the launch site.

Sergio Flores | Afp | Getty Images

Over the weekend, Elon Musk got his new company town along the Texas Gulf Coast. Controlling the city are three SpaceX employees, who all ran unopposed.

As NBC News reported, the election determining incorporation of the city of Starbase concluded on Saturday night, with 212 votes in favor and only six against. Just 143 votes were needed for the measure to pass.

Starbase was victorious in becoming a type C city, which in Texas applies to a previously unincorporated city, town or village of between 201 and 4,999 inhabitants. The city includes the SpaceX launch facility and company-owned land covering a 1.6 square-mile area.

The mayor is 36-year-old Bobby Peden, who has spent more than 12 years working for SpaceX and is currently vice president for Texas test and launch operations. Prior to joining the rocket maker in 2013, Peden was a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Starbase has two commissioners, both from the SpaceX employee ranks.

One is Jenna Petrzelka, 39, who was an operations engineering manager at SpaceX until July, and now identifies as a philanthropist, according to her application to be on the ballot. She’s married to Joe Petrzelka, a vice president of Starship engineering and almost 14-year veteran at SpaceX.

The other commissioner is Jordan Buss, 40, a senior director of environmental health and safety for SpaceX who joined the company in 2023.

Musk, who has assumed a central role in President Donald Trump’s administration responsible for slashing the size of the federal government, began acquiring land for SpaceX in Boca Chica, Texas, about a decade ago. The first integrated Starship vehicle launched from the site, known as Starbase, in April 2023, and exploded in mid-flight.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service soon disclosed details about the aftermath of the explosion, including that a “3.5-acre fire started south of the pad site on Boca Chica State Park land,” following the test flight.

State and federal regulators have fined SpaceX for violations of the Clean Water Act, and said the company had repeatedly polluted waters in the Boca Chica area. Environmental advocates and indigenous groups have also sued both the Federal Aviation Administration and SpaceX over the company’s flight tests and launch activity in the area.

Those groups said in legal filings that SpaceX caused harm to local habitat and endangered species due to vehicle traffic, noise, heat, explosions and fragmentation caused by the company’s construction, rocket testing and launch practices.

A SpaceX spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a post on X on Saturday, the account for StarbaseTX wrote, “Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity’s place in space.”

WATCH: SpaceX launches third test flight of massive Starship rocket

SpaceX launches third test flight of massive Starship rocket

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Hims & Hers gives weak outlook but says more collaborations are coming

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Hims & Hers gives weak outlook but says more collaborations are coming

Cheng Xin | Getty Images

Shares of Hims & Hers Health fell in extended trading on Monday after the company reported first-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ expectations but offered weaker-than-expected guidance.

Here’s how the company did based on average analysts’ estimates compiled by LSEG:

  • Earnings per share: 20 cents vs. 12 cents
  • Revenue: $586 million vs. $538 million

Revenue at the telehealth company increased 111% in the first quarter from $278.2 million during the same period last year, according to a release. Hims & Hers reported a net income of $49.5 million, or 20 cents per share, compared to $11.1 million, or 5 cents per share, during the same period a year earlier.

For its second quarter, Hims & Hers said it expected to report revenue between $530 million and $550 million, short of the $564.6 million expected by analysts polled by StreetAccount. The company said its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, for the quarter will be between the range of $65 million and $75 million, while StreetAccount analysts were expecting $70.4 million.

Hims & Hers’ stock has had a turbulent start to the year, notching several double-digit moves over the past few months. On April 29, shares rocketed up 20% after Novo Nordisk said it would offer its weight loss drug Wegovy through telehealth providers such as Hims & Hers.

The company said Monday that more collaborations are coming.

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“Over time, we expect wider collaboration across the industry, inclusive of pharmaceutical players, innovative leaders in diagnostic and preventative testing, and world class providers,” Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum said in the release. “We believe this will strengthen our ecosystem and position us to curate a best-in-class offering that can reach tens of millions of people.” 

Hims & Hers reported adjusted EBITDA of $91.1 million for its first quarter, up from $32.3 million last year and above the $61.3 million expected by StreetAccount.

Earlier on Monday, Hims & Hers announced Nader Kabbani will join the company as its chief operations officer. Kabbani spent nearly 20 years at Amazon, where he oversaw the launch of Amazon Pharmacy, the company’s acquisition of PillPack and its global Covid-19 Vaccination Task Force. 

Hims & Hers will hold its quarterly call with investors at 5:00 p.m. ET.

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Hinge Health says revenue increased 50% in first quarter — still no price range for IPO

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Hinge Health says revenue increased 50% in first quarter — still no price range for IPO

Hinge Health’s TrueMotion feature.

Courtesy: Hinge Health

Hinge Health on Monday updated its prospectus to include the results from its first quarter, which showed accelerating revenue growth over its fourth quarter.

The digital physical therapy startup filed to go public in March, but it has not shared a price range yet. Hinge said that revenue in its first quarter climbed 50% to $123.8 million, up from $82.7 million during the same period last year. Hinge reported $117.3 million in revenue during its fourth quarter, up 44% from the same period in 2023.

Hinge said its net income for the period was $17.1 million after taxes, up from a net loss of $26.5 million after taxes during the same period last year.

The company is attempting to go public at a time of extreme economic uncertainty and market volatility, spurred largely by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policy. Several companies, including online lender Klarna and ticket marketplace StubHub, have delayed their long-awaited IPOs.

Hinge’s updated prospectus signals to investors that the company is planning to forge ahead.

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While the company’s revenue jumped 50%, the cost of goods sold fell slightly. That allowed Hinge to lift its gross margin to 81% from 70% a year earlier and record an operating income of $13.1 million after losing $31. 4 million in the same period a year earlier.

Hinge uses software to help patients treat acute musculoskeletal injuries, chronic pain and carry out post-surgery rehabilitation remotely. Large employers cover the costs so their employees can access Hinge’s app-based virtual physical therapy, as well as its wearable electrical nerve stimulation device called Enso. 

Daniel Perez, Hinge’s CEO, and Gabriel Mecklenburg, the company’s executive chairman, co-founded the company in 2014 after experiencing personal struggles with physical rehabilitation.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Q1 2025 was the company’s first profitable quarter. Hinge was profitable previously.

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