NVIDIA, ranked first in Wednesday's U.S. stock trading volume, closed up 2.95%, with a turnover of $36.128 billion. On January 21 local time, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang discussed three major breakthroughs in AI models over the past year at the Davos Forum.
"Three significant events occurred in the AI model layer last year. First, while early models were prone to hallucinations, last year they became applicable in research, capable of reasoning, planning, and answering questions without specific domain training, leading to the emergence of Agentic AI," Huang stated. He indicated that the second major breakthrough came from open-source models, with the launch of the first open-source reasoning model, DeepSeek, being a major event for most industries and companies, sparking a flourishing ecosystem that enables many companies, research institutions, and educators to utilize these models.
Huang noted that the third area of significant progress is Physical AI, which can understand not only language but also the physical world, such as biological proteins, chemistry, and physics, including fluid dynamics, particle physics, and quantum physics.
Tesla, the second most traded stock, closed up 2.91%, with a turnover of $28.79 billion. Media reports indicated that Tesla's gigafactory near Berlin reduced its workforce by approximately 1,700 employees. Citing an internal document inviting employees to elect works council representatives, reports stated that the Grünheide factory, Tesla's sole production plant in Europe located southeast of the German capital, currently has 10,703 employees, a 14% decrease compared to figures from a similar document before the 2024 works council elections.
Subsequently, however, Tesla stated it currently has no plans to reduce production or implement layoffs at the Berlin factory.
Micron, ranked third, closed up 6.61%, hitting a record high, with a turnover of $20.887 billion. The acquisition of a Taiwanese wafer fab by Micron received positive outlook from investment bank Stifel, which described it as achieving a "strategic leap."
Stifel pointed out that Micron Technology's plan to acquire a chip manufacturing plant from Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation for $1.8 billion in an all-cash deal creates synergies with its existing DRAM capacity layout and provides a faster path for capacity expansion amid the current DRAM shortage.
The transaction, expected to be completed in the second half of 2026, is anticipated to contribute significantly to Micron's DRAM wafer output by the second half of 2027. Following the news, Micron's stock rose 2% in early trading on Tuesday.
In its latest report, Stifel reaffirmed its "Buy" rating on Micron and significantly raised its price target from $300 to $360.
Microsoft, ranked fourth, closed down 2.29%, with a turnover of $16.711 billion. Mizuho lowered its price target for Microsoft from $640 to $620, although it maintained an "Outperform" rating.
AMD, ranked fifth, closed up 7.71%, with a turnover of $15.296 billion. Brokerage Bernstein raised its price target for AMD from $220 to $225.
Intel, ranked seventh, closed up 11.72%, with a turnover of $11.556 billion. The company's new Government Technology Vice President, James Chew, announced on Tuesday that Intel successfully secured a major U.S. War Department contract, becoming the chip supplier for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program under an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with a ceiling value of $151 billion.
Additionally, Intel is scheduled to report its earnings after the U.S. market closes on January 22. Intel shareholders' optimism for this earnings report has reached a peak not seen in several quarters, betting that CEO Pat Gelsinger's promised turnaround plan is taking effect, while massive data center expansions are driving strong demand for Intel's traditional server chips.
Netflix, ranked tenth, closed down 2.18%, with a turnover of $10.668 billion. The company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $12.05 billion, earnings per share of $0.56, and global paid subscribers reaching 325 million; it stated that 2025 advertising sales exceeded $1.5 billion and forecasted 2026 revenue between $50.7 billion and $51.7 billion.
The company also announced a pause in its stock repurchase program to fund an offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
UBS lowered its price target for Netflix from $150 to $130. Oppenheimer reduced its price target from $145 to $125.
SanDisk, ranked twelfth, closed up 10.63%, breaking through $500 for the first time to set a record high, with a turnover of $9.536 billion. Storage-related stocks generally advanced in Wednesday's U.S. trading session.
Oracle, ranked sixteenth, closed down 3.36%, falling to its lowest level in seven months, with a turnover of $6.555 billion. Analysts pointed out that the rapid cooling of market enthusiasm for Oracle stems from the combined effect of multiple complex factors. Firstly, investors harbor doubts about the stability of the company's backlog. The significant growth in its backlog, and revenue expectations, heavily rely on a single major customer—OpenAI. Concurrently, Oracle is significantly increasing its debt to fund its massive data center construction efforts.
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