Nvidia’s surge ripples across stock market — lifting AI, tech and semiconductor ETFs

“We think the near-term momentum in AI-related stocks is likely to continue,” said Solita Marcelli, chief investment officer for the Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management, in a note Thursday. “To position, we maintain our preference for semiconductors and software, and see opportunities in beneficiaries of AI edge computing, big tech, and their partners.”

Shares of Nvidia’s soared 16.4% on Thursday to an all-time high after the semiconductor company released its latest quarterly earnings results following the U.S. stock market’s close on Wednesday. The megacap chip maker’s big gains made it the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 on Thursday, propelling the large-cap index to a fresh record closing peak and fueling a sharp jump in its information-technology sector, in particular.

AI-related exchange-traded funds whose shares also surged Thursday included the Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF
CHAT
and the Invesco AI and Next Gen Software ETF
IGPT,
each with around 5% gains, according to FactSet data. Both funds are much smaller than the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF based on assets under management.

Other AI ETFs that closed sharply higher on Thursday were the ROBO Global Artificial Intelligence ETF
THNQ,
Wisdom Tree Artificial Intelligence & Innovation Fund
WTAI,
Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF
AIQ,
iShares Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF
IRBO,
and ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF
ROBO,
FactSet data show.

‘AI enthusiasm intact’

For now, Nvidia “has met lofty expectations and that will keep general AI enthusiasm intact and that is a positive for the market, broadly speaking,” said Tom Essaye, founder and president of Sevens Report Research, in a note Thursday.

See: Nvidia’s stock surge could add $200 billion in market cap with ‘mammoth growth’ on tap

“The question now is whether AI enthusiasm can continue to pull the market higher or if we’re now in need of new leadership to send the S&P 500 towards 5,100 and higher,” Essaye said. “The replacement for AI leadership isn’t evident on the surface.”

The S&P 500 index
SPX
rose 2.1% Thursday to finish at about 5,087. The S&P 500’s information-technology sector
XX:SP500.45
jumped more than 4% on Nvidia’s surge, easily outperforming the index’s 10 other sectors, according to FactSet data.

Read: AI stocks in the S&P 500 have outperformed this year — and not just the ‘Magnificent Seven’

Nvidia isn’t the biggest holding for all AI-themed ETFs, though.

For example, the chip maker ranked third in the iShares Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF on Wednesday with an almost 1.3% weight, data from BlackRock’s website show. ARM Holdings
ARM,
-0.03%
was the fund’s largest exposure at 1.7%, followed by Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
+2.01%
at slightly more than 1.3%.

Meanwhile, Nvidia’s surge on Thursday also lifted shares of semiconductor-focused ETFs.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF
SOXX
ended 4.9% higher while the VanEck Semiconductor ETF
SMH
surged 6.8%, FactSet data show.

Nvidia, which was the biggest weight for both ETFs earlier this week, is among the so-called Big Tech companies that collectively represent an outsize weight in the S&P 500 index.

Big Tech stocks in the group of megacap companies known as the “Magnificent Seven,” which span across the tech, communication-services and communication-discretionary sectors, were all rising on Thursday, with Nvidia leading the way up. 

Shares of the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF
MAGS
— whose holdings include Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
-0.20%,
Apple Inc.
AAPL,
-0.69%,
Nvidia, Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
-0.09%,
Facebook parent Meta Platforms, Google parent Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL,
-0.36%

GOOG,
-0.49%
and Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
-1.17%
— jumped 4.8% on Thursday. 

Nvidia also helped lift exchange-traded funds focused on tech stocks.

Shares of the Vanguard Information Technology ETF
VGT,
Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund
XLK
and iShares U.S. Technology ETF
IYW
all climbed more than 3% on Thursday, according to FactSet data.

The U.S. stock market broadly rose , with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite
COMP
leading major indexes higher with a 3% gain Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
closed 1.2% higher, with software and computer-services companies posting some of the biggest gains in the index, according to FactSet data.