Senior System Applications Engineer

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gives a keynote address at CES 2025, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. Jan. 6, 2025. Steve Marcus | ReutersMore than two years into the generative artificial intelligence boom, Wall Street is setting an increasingly high bar for chipmakers.When it comes to earnings reports — most recently from Marvell Technology — good isn't good enough. That's because investors previously poured into the companies making the infrastructure and devices at the heart of the AI economy, bidding the stocks up to historically high levels.They're demanding results.Marvell shares plummeted 20% on Thursday, their steepest slump since 2001, after guidance fell short of some elevated estimates. The company's revenue forecast as well as its results for the latest quarter were all ahead of the average analyst estimate, according to LSEG, but Wall Street wanted more after the stock soared 83% in 2024."While Marvell reported a small beat and raise, the guide was definitively below buyside expectations," analysts at Cantor wrote in a report following the results.Nvidia suffered a similar fate in late February, with its stock dropping 8.5% the day after the leader in AI processors reported earnings and revenue that sailed past estimates. Shares of Advanced Micro Devices fell more than 6% earlier in February after beating expectations

Guests including Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk attend the Inauguration of Donald J. Trump in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. Julia Demaree Nikhinson | Getty ImagesSo much for the Trump bump.After plunging 2.6% on Thursday, the Nasdaq has wiped out all of its post-election gains and is on pace for its worst week since September, as investors fret over tariffs, weaker-than-expected employment numbers and a potential cooling in the artificial intelligence market.The selloff marks a big reversal for tech, especially after the industry's top executives went out of their way to show their support for Donald Trump following his election victory in November, traveling to see him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and publicly announcing their contributions to his inauguration. Many of the industry's biggest names, including Apple's Tim Cook, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai attended the inauguration in Washington, D.C., in January.Those companies all contributed to the tech rally over the past two years. The Nasdaq jumped 43% in 2023 and 29% last year, driven by gains in Nvidia, Meta and other companies that are viewed as major beneficiaries of the AI boom.Aaron Dunn, Morgan Stanley Investment Management co-head of value equity, told CNBC's "The Exchange" on Thursday that uncertainty surrounding Trump's economic policies coupled with a broad shift away from risk is at the heart of the move."We really want to focus on businesses that we would call all-weather businesses in the market," said Dunn