Global stock markets climbed as investors maintained optimism regarding the technology sector driving the artificial intelligence boom. In the United States, all three major indexes rose on Tuesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gaining 1.18 percent. The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.03 percent. Five of the "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks advanced, led by Tesla, which rose 4.04 percent. Amazon gained 1.61 percent, while Apple and Alphabet gained 0.93 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively. Nvidia, the world’s most valuable public company, rose almost 1 percent after announcing a $3bn investment in Meta’s equity offering. Conversely, Meta fell 1.64 percent, and Microsoft fell 0.24 percent. Other tech movers included Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom, and Intel, which gained 5.45 percent, 4 percent, and 3.61 percent, respectively.
Gains continued in Asia Pacific markets on Wednesday. South Korea’s KOSPI led the rally, with the benchmark index up 5.84 percent as of 03:00 GMT. The surge followed announcements from SK Hynix, a top three memory chip maker, which reported operating profit soaring about 630 percent year-on-year to 83.33 trillion won ($62.8bn). SK Hynix shares listed in South Korea surged more than 8 percent following the results. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was up 1.26 percent, and the TAIEX in Taipei was up 1.32 percent, while the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was up 0.11 percent.
Investors are awaiting upcoming earnings reports from major tech companies to gauge the returns on massive AI investments. Microsoft and Alphabet are scheduled to report results on Wednesday, followed by Amazon on Thursday, and Apple on Monday. Separately, AI giant Anthropic filed paperwork for its IPO on Monday, reporting a net loss of $80.7bn in the first half of 2026 on $16.3bn in revenue.
Tech firms have invested hundreds of billions of dollars each into AI infrastructure, prompting debate over whether a speculative market bubble similar to the 2000 dot-com crash is forming. According to Gartner, a technology insights company, global AI investment is forecast to reach $2.7 trillion in 2026 and $3.6 trillion in 2027.
Oil prices rose amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, including hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis. Futures for Brent crude, the global benchmark, stood at about $115 a barrel, up 59 percent from before the war began. Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell in London, stated that "A rally in a host of AI-related stocks including neocloud group CoreWeave, data storage specialist Western Digital and IT solutions provider Super Micro Computing implies that investors aren’t over the AI craze just yet."
