Stock action for semiconductor firms and semiconductor equipment manufacturers demonstrated divergent action during trading on Wednesday during what has been a busy news week for the sectors.
Photronics (PLAB), which creates tools essential for the production of integrated circuits and flat panel displays, showed the most action. It had surged 40% by early afternoon trading, following its fourth quarter fiscal 2025 financial results. Meanwhile, ASML Holding (ASML) had declined 0.5% one day after a report surfaced that the Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment manufacturer had at least one customer with ties to the Chinese military. Applied Materials (AMAT) had inched up 0.6%, and KLA (KLAC) was relatively static.
Tech titan Nvidia (NVDA) shares were down 1% following a barrage of reports this week related to its recent U.S. approval to export its H200 chips to China. Competitors AMD (AMD) and Intel (INTC) had declined slightly by 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively. Intel is reportedly close to locking down a deal to acquire the artificial intelligence chip startup SambaNova Systems. Intel, AMD and Texas Instruments (TXN) were also named defendants in civil suits filed on behalf of Ukrainian citizens in a Texas court on Wednesday. Texas Instruments had inched up 0.1%.
Marvell Technology (MRVL) had increased 2.5% by afternoon trading after CEO Mark Murphy refuted reports that his company had recently lost business with Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT). Competitor Broadcom (AVGO) was static, while Qualcomm (QCOM) had edged up 1.8%.
In the memory sector, Micron Technology (MU) was up 2.5%. Rising demand for DRAM and NAND has led to nearly unanimous optimism around the stock, which has already more than tripled year to date. Seagate Technology (STX) had jumped 3.6%, and Western Digital (WDC) had climbed 4%.
During the 53rd annual Nasdaq Investor Conference on Tuesday, Western Digital’s CEO explained how data center buildouts have catapulted demand.
“I mean, if you go back five, six years ago, only 50% of what we did was in the data center, and it was primarily through OEMs, right?,” said Irving Tan. “Today, it’s 90%. The vast majority of that is large hyperscalers both in the U.S. and in Asia. So we are a very different company today.”
Credo Technology (CRDO), which has more than doubled year to date, was down 7% during early afternoon trading.