Nvidia and Big Tech Rally to Help Wall Street Recover Much of Last Week's Loss

A view of a Nvidia logo at their headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan May 31, 2023. (Reuters)
A view of a Nvidia logo at their headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan May 31, 2023. (Reuters)
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Nvidia and Big Tech Rally to Help Wall Street Recover Much of Last Week's Loss

A view of a Nvidia logo at their headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan May 31, 2023. (Reuters)
A view of a Nvidia logo at their headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan May 31, 2023. (Reuters)

Big Tech and other superstars of the US stock market are rallying on Monday, as Wall Street recovers much of its loss from last week.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.2% to claw back more than two-thirds of its first weekly loss in the last four. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 183 points, or 0.4%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.9% higher.

Nvidia was by far the strongest force pushing the market upward and rose 4%. It and other winners in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology had been at the center of last week’s drop. Critics say their stock prices shot too high and too fast in the mania around AI, drawing comparisons to the 2000 dot-com bubble that ultimately burst.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which makes chips for Nvidia and other companies, saw its stock that trades in United States rise 3.1% after saying its revenue climbed nearly 17% in October from a year earlier. While such growth is strong compared with other companies, it’s a slowdown from TSMC’s earlier performance.

Another AI darling, Palantir Technologies, jumped 8% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500.

The gains for tech helped offset losses across much of the rest of the market, as the majority of stocks within the S&P 500 index sank.

Health insurers fell as uncertainty remains about whether Washington will extend expiring health care tax credits, a sticking point in the disagreement on Capitol Hill that's created the longest-ever shutdown for the US government.

That's even though the Senate took the first steps on Sunday to end the shutdown.

President Donald Trump suggested in a social media post over the weekend — with few details — that the subsidies being sent to the “money sucking” insurance companies should instead be sent directly to people so they can buy their own health insurance.

Humana fell 2.6%, and Cigna slipped 0.7%, The AP news reported.

The effects of the government's shutdown have become more apparent following the cancellations of thousands of flights over the weekend. Towers are facing shortages as some air traffic controllers — unpaid for weeks — have stopped showing up for work.

Besides the pain at airports, the US government’s shutdown has also delayed many important reports on the economy. A resumption could upset financial markets if the released logjam shows data that dashes traders’ expectations for coming cuts to interest rates.

The wide expectation is that the Federal Reserve will continue to cut its main interest rate in hopes of shoring up what has been a slowing job market. Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they can give the economy a boost while also pushing prices for investments upwards.

But the Fed has said it may have to halt its cuts if inflation worsens because lower interest rates can give inflation more fuel.

Without updates from the US government on jobs and the economy, traders have been trawling profit reports from companies for clues about how things are going.

Tyson Foods, which sells chicken and other meat, climbed 2.1% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It benefited from increases in prices of 11% to 17% for its beef and pork.

Roughly four out of every five companies in the S&P 500 have also been reporting stronger profits for the summer than analysts expected. Companies usually top analysts’ profit expectations each quarter, but the pressure was high this time around because they needed to justify the big moves upward their stock prices have made since April.

Delivering bigger profits is one of the easier ways they can quiet criticism that their stock prices have become too expensive.

Companies have also been giving generally strong forecasts for upcoming results, according to Bank of America strategist Savita Subramanian. That has analysts' overall expectations for earnings in 2026 nearly all the way back to where they were before Trump shocked the economy and financial markets with his “Liberation Day” announcement of worldwide tariffs.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rallied across much of Europe and Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 3% for one of the bigger gains. Chip company SK Hynix, which is cooperating with Nvidia on artificial intelligence, leaped 4.5%. Its bigger rival, Samsung Electronics, climbed 2.8%.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.10% from 4.11% late Friday.



Manus Raises More Than $500 Million after Meta Exit

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
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Manus Raises More Than $500 Million after Meta Exit

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

Butterfly Effect, the parent company of AI startup Manus, said on Thursday it completed a funding round of more than $500 million as the firm resumed independent operations after unwinding Meta's $2 billion-plus acquisition.

The round was co-led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, with existing investors Tencent, Sequoia China and ZhenFund ⁠also participating, Reuters reported.

Here are some ⁠details:

Manus develops general-purpose AI agents that can autonomously carry out tasks such as research and automation with minimal human input.

In April, Beijing ⁠ordered Meta to unwind its acquisition of Manus amid tightening scrutiny of US investment in Chinese startups developing advanced AI technologies.

Manus said in August it would resume operating as an independent company and delete some user data as part of its separation from ⁠Meta.

The Information reported in June that Manus' annualized revenue run rate had surged to about $500 million, up from $100 million when Meta acquired it, and that the firm was considering a joint-venture structure incorporated in China, paving the way for a Hong Kong listing.


Microsoft Pushes AI Vision with New, Expensive Surface Laptop

Windows laptops powered by Nvidia's RTX Spark chips are displayed at a Windows event on October 07, 2026 at Dogpatch studios in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
Windows laptops powered by Nvidia's RTX Spark chips are displayed at a Windows event on October 07, 2026 at Dogpatch studios in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Microsoft Pushes AI Vision with New, Expensive Surface Laptop

Windows laptops powered by Nvidia's RTX Spark chips are displayed at a Windows event on October 07, 2026 at Dogpatch studios in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
Windows laptops powered by Nvidia's RTX Spark chips are displayed at a Windows event on October 07, 2026 at Dogpatch studios in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images/AFP)

Microsoft is pushing a "hybrid intelligence" future with a new Surface Ultra laptop that runs on Nvidia artificial intelligence (AI) chips and will cost more than $2,500, the company announced Wednesday.

The launch is part of a broader push by tech companies to release hardware that can handle more AI computing on-device and offline, so users don't have to rely solely on remote cloud data centers, where running AI is slower and more expensive.

It also sees Nvidia, whose data center processors power the AI revolution, make a move into personal computing, a sector dominated for decades by chips from Intel and Qualcomm.

"The trajectory for me is so clear. There will never be a moment where we will go and look and say: 'Oh, this runs locally, this runs in the cloud.' You will expect this hybrid intelligence to be everywhere and pervasive," CEO Satya Nadella said during an event in San Francisco.

He was joined onstage by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who echoed the idea that AI will be integrated into all computing going forward and on all devices.

Agentic AI, in particular, will be central to software development, Huang said, referring to systems programmed to be autonomous and perform tasks without supervision.

With all the changes from AI, "the computer has to be revolutionized," Huang said.

The partnership between the two US-based tech titans helps them compete with Apple, Intel and AMD in the personal computing market.

Apple unveiled two desktop computers in September, the Mac mini and Mac Studio, which it touted as powerful new options capable of processing AI software locally.

Microsoft has been working on building "AI PCs" since at least 2024, when its laptops were powered by Qualcomm chips.

The new Surface Ultra will use Nvidia's state-of-the-art AI chip, RTX Spark, which the semiconductor giant announced earlier this year.

It will cost $2,599 and begins shipping on October 16.

Some AI computing power and data will be processed locally, or on the device, while other applications are still handled remotely via Microsoft's cloud computing services.

"We built it for developers and creators pushing the limits of performance," Microsoft Executive Vice President of Windows and Device Pavan Davuluri said on Wednesday.

The news comes just a couple of weeks after Microsoft announced it would integrate Word, Excel and Powerpoint into its AI-powered assistant Copilot, in an effort to make AI the entry point for its famous suite of productivity software.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and Claude-maker Anthropic each launched their own document creation tools in recent months.

The two San Francisco-based AI labs are also key suppliers for Microsoft, since Copilot runs primarily on their models.

Microsoft's in-house models currently only power a few products, such as GitHub's Copilot coding tool.

In June, Microsoft also unveiled its own cutting-edge artificial intelligence models -- a crucial step toward reducing its dependence on OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.


Trump to Give Musk Top US Science Medal

US President Donald Trump and SpacexAI Founder and CEO Elon Musk speak to the media at the White House driveway following a luncheon for tech leaders in the East Room, in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2026. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump and SpacexAI Founder and CEO Elon Musk speak to the media at the White House driveway following a luncheon for tech leaders in the East Room, in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2026. (Reuters)
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Trump to Give Musk Top US Science Medal

US President Donald Trump and SpacexAI Founder and CEO Elon Musk speak to the media at the White House driveway following a luncheon for tech leaders in the East Room, in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2026. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump and SpacexAI Founder and CEO Elon Musk speak to the media at the White House driveway following a luncheon for tech leaders in the East Room, in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2026. (Reuters)

President Donald Trump will present close ally Elon Musk and other tech bosses with the top US scientific award at a ceremony on Thursday, the White House said.

Google co-founder Sergei Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD chief Lisa Su will also receive the National Medal of Science at the "Science: A New Golden Age" summit.

Computer mogul Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will get the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the top award in its field.

"The Trump Administration is grateful for the contributions of these incredible leaders in science and technology. These recipients are helping ensure America keeps leading the world in innovation," White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement to AFP on Wednesday.

Space X and Tesla tycoon Musk has returned to Trump's good graces after they fell out last year over his role heading the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency.

He was also the biggest donor to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

Musk and Huang were both at Trump's state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping last month.

Along with other tech bosses they were also at the White House last week for talks in which tech chiefs promised to self-regulate against possible threats from artificial intelligence.

Trump has dismissed warnings that AI could wipe out humanity, insisting it is crucial for what he calls the "Golden Age" of the US economy in his second term.

But Trump's Republican Party could lose control of Congress in midterm elections next month amid voter concerns over the Iran war and the cost of living.