The rise of artificial intelligence sent the stock market higher this week, adding to the excitement as Nvidia’s explosive earnings boosted the names of other tech companies. Nvidia soared 24.4% on Thursday alone after the AI chipmaker announced sales forecasts for the quarter that exceeded analyst expectations by more than 50%. The semiconductor company also beat its first-quarter profit and revenue forecasts released after the clock on Wednesday. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company is experiencing a “surge in demand” for its data center products. The news prompted investors to buy other stocks they thought would benefit from AI, many of which were named the biggest winners of the week. Here are the top 10 gainers in the S&P 500 index this week. Data is current as of Friday morning. Nvidia’s massive outperformance sent the stock to an all-time high on Thursday, bringing its market capitalization closer to his $1 trillion mark. As of Friday morning, AI’s beloved stock is up nearly 22% week-to-date, with analysts’ average target still up 11%, according to FactSet. Earnings exploded and several analysts raised their price targets on Thursday, with both JP Morgan and Evercore ISI raising their price targets to $500 a share. Monolithic Power Systems has also rallied, gaining about 21% so far this week. However, analysts’ average price target is down about 3.5%. About 77% of analysts who cover the stock, including Needham’s Quinn Bolton, rate it a buy. Bolton recently highlighted his Monolithic, which provides a power management solution for Nvidia’s H100 graphics processing unit, as a discreet AI effort. Advanced Micro Devices, meanwhile, is up nearly 18% so far this week, but analysts’ average price target has 15% downside. Among analysts covering the stock, 57% rate it as a buy. One of them, Raymond James’ Srini Pajjuri, called AMD an “underrated AI/ML play”. The company makes the graphics processing units that power most generative AI tools. Third Point hedge fund manager Dan Loeb has also acquired stakes in chip makers, according to filings. Finally, Arista Networks is up nearly 15% so far this week, with an additional 4% upside to analysts’ average price targets. About 56% of stock price analysts rate the stock as a buy. Network companies provide the infrastructure that supports AI data. Among those bullish on the stock is Piper Sandler analyst James Fish, who wrote in an April memo that “Arista is well positioned to benefit from AI-driven demand. It is in.” — CNBC’s Samantha Soobin and Michael Bloom contributed coverage.
