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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.Wall Street is partying like it's 2024.
Shares of tech mega-caps soared on Thursday as strong earnings reports from Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META) breathed fresh life into the AI trade that's fueled stock market gains for the past two years.
Microsoft and Meta both beat expectations with their quarterly results on Wednesday. Microsoft reported a 21% increase in cloud revenue, while Meta said its AI is approaching 1 billion monthly active users.
The results boosted beaten-down AI and Big Tech stocks. Nvidia (NVDA) stock, which entered Thursday's session down 19% since the start of the year, was up about 4% in recent trading. Nuclear power providers Vistra (VST) and Constellation Energy (CEG), whose stocks soared last year on booming demand for electricity to power AI data centers, were up more than 6% and 8%, respectively, lifting both stocks into positive territory for the year. Networking tech company Arista Networks (ANET), down about 30% year-to-date as of Wednesday, jumped more than 7%.
AI Stocks Hit by Sell-Off Early This Year
AI stocks were hit hard by this year's market mayhem. AI stocks sold off in late January after advances by Chinese startup DeepSeek called into question the economic assumptions underpinning the AI trade. That panic was followed by President Donald Trump's global trade war, which sent investors racing into safe havens amid mounting concerns about a worldwide economic slowdown.
The economic uncertainty appeared to be taking a toll on AI investment. Microsoft's head of cloud operations last month said the company was pausing work on some AI data centers in their early phases, and Amazon was reportedly mulling slowing its data-center expansion.
Microsoft and Meta's results put those concerns to bed—at least for now. Microsoft reiterated its plan to spend $80 billion this year, and Meta said it will boost its capital expenditures to between $64 billion and $72 billion to boost AI capacity. Google parent Alphabet (GOOG) also stood by its big AI spending plans when it reported solid earnings last week.
Executives on Wednesday justified their big spending plans by pointing to continued strong demand for AI services. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood told analysts demand was still higher than the company could satisfy, and that it would likely “have some AI capacity constraints beyond June.”
Earnings Bring Examples of AI Spending Payoffs
The results also gave investors some evidence that AI investments are paying off. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts Wednesday that AI-driven content recommendations had increased time spent on its platforms by between 6% and 35% in the last six months.