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Charles Liang, CEO, Super Micro 

Source: Supermicro 

Super Micro Computer, one of the best-performing tech stocks of the past few years, soared more than 30% on Friday to a record, after the maker of data center hardware issued preliminary financial results that exceeded estimates.

The company said revenue for the fiscal second quarter, which ended Dec. 31, will come in at $3.6 billion to $3.65 billion, well above prior guidance of $2.7 billion to $2.9 billion. Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $3.06 billion, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv.

Adjusted earnings will be between $5.40 and $5.55 per share, higher than previous guidance of $4.40 to $4.48 per share.

The uplifting numbers follow a 246% pop in Super Micro’s stock last year and a jump of 87% in 2022. Since the end of 2018, the stock has climbed almost 30-fold, meaning a $10 million bet on the company five years ago would have resulted in a stake worth almost $300 million today.

Super Micro manufactures computers and sells them to companies, which use them as servers for websites, data storage and applications like artificial intelligence algorithms. Analysts at Wedbush Securities said in a note on Friday that Super Micro’s sales are “mostly dependent” on Nvidia’s allocation of its graphics processing units (GPUs), which are at the heart of the AI boom.

Nvidia’s revenue more than tripled in the third quarter from the prior year due to soaring demand from cloud and internet companies for its GPUs. Analysts are expecting a similar increase for the fourth quarter.

Based on the midpoint of Super Micro’s guidance range, the 30-year-old company is expecting revenue to have doubled in the December quarter from a year earlier. Super Micro’s full earnings report is scheduled to be released later this month.

“The magnitude of good news will really depend on the details,” the Wedbush analysts wrote, maintaining a neutral rating on the stock. “We will wait for SMCI’s report and earnings call for additional color before revisiting our forward assumptions and the implications for our company outlook.”

Super Micro shares were up 32% to $411.14 as of early Friday afternoon. Its highest prior close was $353.29 in August of last year.

WATCH: CNBC interview with Super Micro CEO Charles Liang

Super Micro CEO Charles Liang: Our growth can be very strong in the next few years

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AMD expects $800 million hit from U.S. chip restrictions on China

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AMD expects 0 million hit from U.S. chip restrictions on China

Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, attends the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, Feb. 10, 2025.

Benoit Tessier | Reuters

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices slid more than 5% on Wednesday after the company said it could incur charges of up to $800 million for exporting its MI308 products to China and other countries.

“The Company expects to apply for licenses but there is no assurance that licenses will be granted,” AMD said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The new U.S. license requirement, which applies to exports of certain semiconductor products, would hit inventory, purchase commitments and related reserves, AMD said in the filing.

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AMD is one of the companies that builds the hardware behind the artificial intelligence boom. The company claims its AMD Instinct MI300 Series accelerators are “uniquely well-suited to power even the most demanding AI and HPC workloads,” according to its website.

It generated a “record” revenue of $25.8 billion in 2025, according to its February earnings release, but the new export restrictions could slow growth.

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AMD one month stock chart.

Nvidia, an AMD competitor, released a similar disclosure on Tuesday. The company said it will take a quarterly charge of about $5.5 billion for exporting H20 graphics processing units.

China is Nvidia’s fourth-largest region by sales, after the U.S., Singapore, and Taiwan, according to the company’s annual report. More than half of its sales went to U.S. companies in its fiscal year that ended in January.

–CNBC’s Kif Leswing and Jordan Novet contributed to this report.

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Chip stocks fall as Nvidia, AMD warn of higher costs from China export controls

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Chip stocks fall as Nvidia, AMD warn of higher costs from China export controls

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers the keynote for the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, on March 18, 2025.

Brittany Hosea-small | Reuters

Technology stocks declined Wednesday, led by a 5% drop in Nvidia, as the chipmaking sector signaled that President Donald Trump‘s sweeping tariff plans could hamper demand and growth.

Nvidia revealed in a filing Tuesday that it will take a $5.5 billion charge tied to exporting its H20 graphics processing units to China and other countries and said that the government will require a license to ship the chips there and other destinations.

The chip was designed specifically for China use during President Joe Biden’s administration to meet U.S. export restrictions barring the sale of advanced AI processors, which totaled an estimated $12 billion to $15 billion in revenue in 2024. Advanced Micro Devices said in a filing Wednesday that the latest export controls on its MI308 products could lead to an $800 million hit.

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Chipmaking stocks have struggled in the wake of President Donald Trump’s sweeping U.S. trade restrictions, sparked by fears that higher tariffs will stifle demand.

The disclosures from Nvidia and AMD are the first major signs that Trump’s fierce battle with China could significantly hamper chip growth. The administration has made some exemptions for electronics, including semiconductors, but has warned that separate tariffs could come down the road.

Adding to the sector worries was a disappointing print from Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML. The company missed order expectations and said that tariff restrictions create demand uncertainty. Shares fell about 5%.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF fell more than 4%, with AMD plunging more than 5%. Micron Technology, Marvell Technology and Broadcom sank about 2% each. Equipment makers Applied Materials and Lam Research fell about 3% each.

The declines spilled over into the broader market and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which dropped nearly 2%. Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Tesla lost about 2% each. Amazon, Microsoft and Apple were last down about 1% each.

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Lyft to buy taxi app Free Now for $200 million to expand into Europe

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Lyft to buy taxi app Free Now for 0 million to expand into Europe

Lyft logo is seen in this illustration taken June 27, 2022.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

U.S. ride-hailing firm Lyft on Wednesday announced that it’s buying European taxi app Free Now in a 175 million euro ($199 million) deal.

The company said that the acquisition — Lyft’s first in Europe — is expected to close in the second half of 2025, and that, once combined, the two companies will serve over 50 million combined annual users.

Founded in 2009 as myTaxi, Free Now is a ride-hailing platform headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company has been jointly owned by German automotive giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz since 2019.

The app is available in over 150 cities across nine countries, including Ireland, the U.K., Germany and France. Beyond traditional taxi and ride-hailing services, Free Now also offers other mobility options including e-scooters, e-mopeds and e-bikes.

Free Now has been joint-owned by German automotive giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz since 2016.

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

The startup is earnings-positive on the basis of Earnings Before Interest, Debt and Amortization, generating gross bookings over 1 billion euros in 2024, according to a company fact sheet.

Acquiring Free Now will give Lyft a route to expand into the highly competitive European ride-hailing market, where it will come up against the likes of Uber, Estonia’s Bolt and Israel’s Gett.

Lyft’s closest domestic rival, Uber, has a lengthy head start on the firm, having first launched in the U.K. back in 2012. It has since been beset by a series of regulatory issues.

London’s transport regulators tried to ban Uber two times over safety concerns. The company was eventually awarded a fresh license to continue operating in the city in 2022.

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