Chipmakers surge $2 trillion in combined value as AI demand drives investment rotation

Chipmakers Micron, Intel, and Advanced Micro Devices achieved a combined market capitalization increase of approximately $2 trillion during the second quarter as investors rotated their AI portfolios away from hyperscaler companies toward semiconductor enablers. Micron's shares rose over 240%, adding roughly $920 billion in market cap, after reporting revenue more than quadruple due to skyrocketing memory prices driven by AI infrastructure demand. The company's gross margin jumped to 84.9% in the third quarter from 39% a year earlier. Intel shares surged 216%, adding $480 billion in market cap as the company benefits from renewed CPU demand and U.S. chip manufacturing expansion. AMD's stock nearly tripled, adding $615 billion in value, capitalizing on both CPU demand and graphics processing unit offerings, though trailing NVIDIA significantly in GPU market share. This market rotation reflects a changing of the guard in AI as investors increasingly recognize the critical role of semiconductor infrastructure in AI buildout. Despite NVIDIA's continued dominance, its stock gained only 15% in the quarter, underperforming the broader semiconductor sector rally.