As Washington edges into partial paralysis and France scrambles through political upheaval, equity valuations continue to chase the tech frontier, led by artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
Despite the US federal government entering shutdown, and France’s prime minister resigning after less than a month in office, stocks have pushed higher. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq responded with gains of roughly 1.2%and 1.6% respectively, buoyed primarily by gains in chipmakers and AI-adjacent sectors.
AMD surged over 23% following its new multi-year deal with OpenAI, which includes a right for OpenAI to purchase shares at a minimal cost. Under the partnership, OpenAI will deploy 6 gigawatts’ worth of AMD GPUs starting in the second half of next year. To put that in context, 6 GW of power consumption equals what five million households might use, or three times the annual output of the Hoover Dam. Meanwhile, Nvidia’s strategic partnership with OpenAI continues to deepen, with commitments of up to $100 billion and plans for 10 GW of AI data centres.
Across the Atlantic, the FTSE 100 also rallied, propelled by a sharp unexpected leap in AstraZeneca shares. That spike followed US policy changes allowing consumers to buy prescription drugs directly from manufacturers, a move that reduces tariff exposure. AstraZeneca also announced plans to dual-list on the NYSE, aiming to tap deeper US institutional flows, while maintaining its London listing.
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