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Micron jumps on looming Samsung strike

Micron shares are climbing early Wednesday, breaking a sharp multiday semiconductor pullback. The rally comes amid the potential for a critical supply-side disruption at one of its largest global competitors, Samsung Electronics, as well as building investor enthusiasm ahead of Nvidia’s highly anticipated earnings report.

As demand for AI compute accelerates, Micron is increasingly viewed as a top-tier beneficiary due to its role in the critical high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market. The operational catalyst sparking Micron’s rally is a massive looming labor dispute in South Korea. According to Reuters, roughly 48,000 Samsung workers are set to begin an 18-day strike Thursday after negotiations broke down.

As global HBM production is effectively controlled by Micron, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix, any manufacturing hiccup at Samsung shifts pricing leverage to Micron. This backdrop comes as South Korea’s broader chip ecosystem is benefiting from the global infrastructure boom, pushing the country to the seventh-largest stock market in the world.

Micron has been expanding its own AI memory footprint. In March, the company completed its acquisition of PSMC’s Tongluo P5 site, a strategic integration designed to scale its domestic HBM production capacity and meet accelerating hyperscaler demand.

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Jake Lahut

Applied Digital inks new $7.5 billion lease with hyperscaler it first booked in April

Applied Digital saw its price soar after hours on news of a long-term lease agreement with the same “investment-grade” hyperscaler it struck a similar deal with in April.

The additional lease for 15 years in a take-or-pay arrangement is valued at $7.5 billion, and could rise to $18.2 billion if all options are exercised, according to the company's announcement.

This latest contract would bring Applied Digital's total contracted lease revenue to $31 billion, or $73 billion if all options are taken up.

The company also crowed about passing 1 GW of contracted capacity as it lands a customer for its fourth AI factory campus. The customer in question is not named, nor the exact location, just that the campus is “located in a northern state.”

The additional lease for 15 years in a take-or-pay arrangement is valued at $7.5 billion, and could rise to $18.2 billion if all options are exercised, according to the company's announcement.

This latest contract would bring Applied Digital's total contracted lease revenue to $31 billion, or $73 billion if all options are taken up.

The company also crowed about passing 1 GW of contracted capacity as it lands a customer for its fourth AI factory campus. The customer in question is not named, nor the exact location, just that the campus is “located in a northern state.”

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Intuit plummets after reporting slowing revenue growth

Is it a worse day to be an Intuit employee or an Intuit shareholder?

On Wednesday, the financial and business tech company announced third-quarter earnings and sweeping layoffs on the same day. The TurboTax parent company said it would cut 17% of its workers — approximately 3,000 people — to focus on its AI efforts, according to a memo obtained by Reuters.

The stock was down 3.8% during market hours. It dropped further when Intuit released third-quarter results after the bell showing the slowest year-over-year revenue growth since 2024, falling 10% after-hours.

Here are the numbers:

  • Q3 revenue of $8.56 billion (compared to analyst estimates of $8.54 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $12.80 (estimate: $12.54).

  • Raised full-year guidance for revenue of $21.34 billion to $21.37 billion (estimate: $21.24 billion).

“We delivered strong third-quarter results, driven by our AI-driven expert platform strategy,” said Sasan Goodarzi, chairman and CEO of Intuit. “As a result, we are raising our full-year revenue guidance for fiscal 2026.”

Shares of Intuit are down nearly 40% this year.

On Wednesday, the financial and business tech company announced third-quarter earnings and sweeping layoffs on the same day. The TurboTax parent company said it would cut 17% of its workers — approximately 3,000 people — to focus on its AI efforts, according to a memo obtained by Reuters.

The stock was down 3.8% during market hours. It dropped further when Intuit released third-quarter results after the bell showing the slowest year-over-year revenue growth since 2024, falling 10% after-hours.

Here are the numbers:

  • Q3 revenue of $8.56 billion (compared to analyst estimates of $8.54 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $12.80 (estimate: $12.54).

  • Raised full-year guidance for revenue of $21.34 billion to $21.37 billion (estimate: $21.24 billion).

“We delivered strong third-quarter results, driven by our AI-driven expert platform strategy,” said Sasan Goodarzi, chairman and CEO of Intuit. “As a result, we are raising our full-year revenue guidance for fiscal 2026.”

Shares of Intuit are down nearly 40% this year.

markets

T1 Energy spikes on record call volumes after Roth analyst calls short report a buying opportunity

Shares of T1 Energy are electric Wednesday afternoon, soaring more than 20% on record call volumes.

The stock had fallen over 13% at its lows on Tuesday after short-only fund Fuzzy Panda Research published a report calling the solar and battery storage company a “China Hustle” rather than a legitimate AI infrastructure investment, also alleging that the company has booked tax credits it won’t receive.

Retail traders have often used the dip that’s followed the announcement of a short report to load up on a company’s shares (see: POET Technologies in April).

Roth Capital Partners analyst Philip Shen responded to the report by calling T1 “a model for what the Trump administration may want in a domestic manufacturer that is transferring advanced technology and capacity to the US,” suggesting that the sell-off was a buying opportunity.

Earlier this week, T1 got an even more prominent vote of confidence when a 13F filing from Situational Awareness showed the hedge fund run by wunderkind Leopold Aschenbrenner held a 3.6% stake in the company at the end of Q1.

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