Ten companies stood firmer on Wednesday, outperforming a mixed performance on the broader market, as investors cheered cooler-than-expected inflation data, while placing bets on renewed optimism for artificial intelligence.
On Wall Street, only the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq finished in the green, up 0.30 percent and 0.03 percent, respectively. The Dow Jones, for its part, lost 0.48 percent.
Meanwhile, our list of 10 top performers on Wednesday was dominated by companies riding the AI boom, thanks to eye-popping developments in the overall industry. In this article, we detail the reasons behind their gains.
To come up with the list, we considered the stocks with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and 5 million shares in trading volume.
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10. Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) rallied to a new all-time high on Wednesday as investors gobbled up shares on optimism that it could generate $120 billion in AI revenues over the next five years.
In intra-day trading, Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) soared to its highest 52-week price of $372.97, before trimming gains to end the day just up by 9.77 percent at $369.57 apiece.
This followed a regulatory filing that Broadcom Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AVGO) board of directors moved to grant CEO Hock Tan a total of 610,521 performance stock units (PSU) that could generate him more than $676.89 million over the next five years.
Under the terms, the PSUs will be awarded if Tan can make Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) generate $120 billion in AI revenues by 2030.
In case the maximum revenue target is not met, Tan will still be able to receive a 200-percent payout percentage of the PSU if the company books $105 billion in AI revenues; 100 percent in case of $90 billion in AI revenues; and none if the company clocks in $60 billion and below by the said timeline.
In case Tan leaves the company early, he could lose the award completely, except if for a good reason or is let go without cause, dies, or becomes permanently disabled.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024, the company generated $12.2 billion in AI revenues, expanding 220 percent year-on-year.
In the third quarter of fiscal year 2025, Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) generated $5.2 billion in revenues from AI.
9. Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd (NASDAQ:CRDO)
Credo Technology surged to a new all-time high on Wednesday, jumping 10.02 percent to close at $163.96 apiece as investors cheered the launch of a new digital signal processor (DSP) designed to support the requirements of next-generation Artificial Intelligence.
In intra-day trading, Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd (NASDAQ:CRDO) climbed to its fresh 52-week high of $164.04 before trimming gains to end the day just up by 10.02 percent at $163.96 apiece. Wednesday also marked its 7th straight day of gains.
This followed the company’s launch of the Bluebird on Tuesday, a high-performance, low-power DSP for 1.6 terabits per second (Tbps) optical transceivers, which enables energy-efficient data transmission essential to unlocking the advanced computational power of state-of-the-art GPU silicon.
“Next-generation AI networks require high-bandwidth, ultra-low latency, extreme reliability, and exceptional power efficiency. Many existing 1.6T transceivers suffer from high levels of power dissipation, constraining deployments due to the challenges with cooling and power delivery. This places limits on the widespread adoption of 1.6T technology,” Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd (NASDAQ:CRDO) said.
“The Credo Bluebird DSP aims to address these challenges by leveraging advanced CMOS process technology and Credo’s proprietary design techniques to deliver industry-leading power efficiency, allowing 1.6T transceivers to consume well under 20W,” it added.
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