By Elsa Ohlen

Super Micro Computer were falling sharply Wednesday after the artificial-intelligence server maker said earnings for its third quarter will likely be far below what Wall Street was expecting.

Shares plummeted 15% in premarket trading Wednesday. If losses hold into ordinary trading, the stock will open around $30. It would be the largest one-day drop since Feb. 27, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Super Micro, or SMCI, said it expects revenue for the March quarter between $4.5 billion and $4.6 billion and adjusted earnings of between 29 and 31 cents a share, in a statement late Tuesday. Analysts had expected $5.4 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS of 53 cents, according to FactSet.

The company attributed the shortfall to "delayed customer platform decisions." Super Micro's servers often house Nvidia chips. That suggests the issue could be around the transition between Nvidia's older Hopper hardware and its new Blackwell processors, with customers waiting to install the newest chips.

Super Micro was once an AI darling and shares peaked at around $118 in early 2024. Since then, the company has fallen from grace as questions about its accounting practices have weighed on the stock. Its former auditor resigned, sending shares nosediving in October.

Super Micro has since appointed a new auditor and said an independent investigation found no evidence of fraud or misconduct.

By Tuesday's close, before the preliminary results were released, shares had gained 18% so far this year. It was the most volatile stock of the S&P 500 in 2024.

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com

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April 30, 2025 06:22 ET (10:22 GMT)

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