** Shares of semiconductor and SemiCap companies rise between ~5.4% to ~1% in premarket
** RBC Capital Markets initiates coverage on major U.S. semiconductor cos such as Nvidia NVDA.O, Micron MU.O, Marvell MRVL.O, Arm Holdings ARM.O, ASML Holding ASML.O, Applied Materials AMAT.O, and Lam Research LRCX.O with "outperform" ratings, and a "sector perform" rating on Broadcom AVGO.O, AMD AMD.O, Intel INTC.O, Sandisk SNDK.O, KLA Corp KLAC.O, and Qualcomm QCOM.O
** Brokerage says "AI bubble concerns notwithstanding, we expect hyperscale capex to remain robust for the next 18-24 months as intense competition for AI leadership continues, and AI monetization trends are improving, and (Big4) hyperscalers' financials do not appear stressed"
** RBC expects any slowdown in technology spending to be gradual, driven by the prolonged AI leadership battle, persistent scaling laws, the compute demands of Artificial General Intelligence $(AGI)$, and favorable geopolitics expanding global demand
** Following are the ratings and price targets on the companies
Company | Stock Rating | Price Target |
Nvidia | Outperform | $240 |
Broadcom | Sector Perform | $370 |
Micron | Outperform | $425 |
AMD | Sector Perform | $230 |
Intel | Sector Perform | $50 |
Qualcomm | Sector Perform | $180 |
Arm | Outperform | $140 |
Marvell | Outperform | $105 |
Sandisk | Sector Perform | $400 |
Astera Labs ALAB.O | Outperform | $225 |
Lattice LSCC.O | Outperform | $105 |
Skyworks SWKS.O | Sector Perform | $65 |
Silicon Labs SLAB.O | Sector Perform | $160 |
ASML | Outperform | $1,550 |
Lam Research | Outperform | $260 |
Applied Materials | Outperform | $385 |
KLA Corp | Sector Perform | $1,550 |
(Reporting by Akriti Shah in Bengaluru)
((akriti.shah@thomsonreuters.com))