10 Firms in the Limelight

Ten stocks capped off the trading week, climbing by double digits on Friday, mirroring an overall market optimism on renewed confidence for the AI industry.

The Nasdaq led the charge among Wall Street’s main indices, jumping 1.31 percent. The S&P 500 followed with a 0.88 percent gain, and the Dow Jones was last, up 0.38 percent.

In this article, we focus on the 10 top-performing stocks and detail the reasons behind their gains.

To come up with the list, we focused on the stocks with a $2 billion market capitalization and 5 million shares in trading volume.

10. AST SpaceMobile Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS)

AST SpaceMobile saw its share prices jump by 15.03 percent on Friday to close at $75.84 apiece, tracking an overall market rally and placing bets ahead of the launch of its next-generation satellite.

On the same day, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that the launch of AST SpaceMobile Inc.’s (NASDAQ:ASTS) BlueBird 6 satellite has been pushed back anew to Christmas Eve, December 24.

Originally set for launch on December 15, AST SpaceMobile Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) announced earlier this week that the takeoff has been pushed back to Sunday, December 21.

The ISRO did not divulge the reason for the second reschedule.

As compared with the BlueBirds 1 to 5, the 6^th generation features the largest commercial phased array in low Earth orbit at nearly 2,400 square feet.

It is also nearly four times bigger than the previous generations, and supports 10 times the data capacity.

The December 24 launch targets to enable ubiquitous cellular broadband coverage from space directly to mobile phones.

According to AST SpaceMobile Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS), it would ramp up the production of its BlueBird 6 satellites, with planned manufacturing expansion in its Florida and Texas facilities.

9. Applied Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:APLD)

Applied Digital extended its winning streak to a second day on Friday, surging 16.53 percent to close at $27.85 apiece as investors loaded positions early ahead of the results of its earnings performance.

In an update on Thursday, Applied Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:APLD) said that it would announce the results of its second quarter earnings performance for the fiscal year 2026 after market close on Jan. 7, 2026. An investor call will be held to elaborate on the results.

In other news this week, Applied Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:APLD) announced the successful raising of $100 million in fresh funds from a term loan facility with Macquarie Group’s Commodities and Global Markets business.

Proceeds from the facility will be used for the pre-lease development of new data center projects.

“This development facility strengthens our ability to move quickly on high-quality sites while maintaining capital flexibility,” said Applied Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:APLD) Chairman and CEO Wes Cummins.

In line with the development, Applied Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:APLD) is also underway with negotiations with another investment-grade hyperscaler for the potential lease of its several campuses.