By Adam Clark
Nvidia shares were heading for new highs on Friday as earnings reports from Meta Platforms and Amazon.com boosted the technology sector. Results from the major tech companies demonstrated their commitment to investment in artificial-intelligence technology, backed by Nvidia’s hardware.
Nvidia shares were up 1.4% in premarket trading at $639.23. The stock closed up 2.4% at $630.27 on Thursday, a record closing high.
Meta said it expects its full-year 2024 capital expenditure to be in the range of $30 billion to $37 billion. That’s up from prior guidance of $30 billion to $35 billion given three months ago.
“Meta’s commitment to AI, which is evident in its recently announced substantial investment plan, includes billions in Nvidia chips to build a strong compute infrastructure for AI development,” said Mayuranki De, a research analyst at exchange-traded fund provider Global X.
Amazon wasn’t as specific with its own guidance but it said it expects capex to increase due to AI investments. Analysts expect its 2024 capex to come to $59.9 billion, up from $52.6 billion last year.
Nvidia was rising alongside other providers of computing hardware. Advanced Micro Devices was up 2.1% in premarket trading while Broadcom was up 1.1%. S&P 500 futures were up 0.6% and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 1.1%.
Nvidia shares have climbed 27% so far this year while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are up 2.9% and 2.3% respectively, as of Thursday’s close.
Nvidia’s trading volume of 36.9 million shares on Thursday was below its 65-day average of 42.4 million shares.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com