Nvidia Stock Rises. What Foxconn, HPE Sales Say About AI Chip Demand.

Nvidia is the favored provider of artificial-intelligence chips. (Courtesy Nvidia)

Key Points

• Nvidia shares rose 0.5% in premarket trading Friday, following a 2.1% increase on Thursday.
• Foxconn, an Nvidia partner, reported a 26% year-over-year rise in November revenue, driven by cloud and networking products including AI servers.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s server revenue decreased 5% to $4.46 billion in the fourth quarter due to AI product development delays.

Nvidia was gaining early on Friday amid mixed signals over sales of artificial-intelligence hardware from AI server companies Foxconn and Hewlett Packard Enterprise .

Nvidia shares were up 0.5% at $184.23 in premarket trading. The stock rose 2.1% on Thursday.

Good news for Nvidia came from its Taiwanese partner Foxconn—formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry —which reported a 26% rise in its November revenue from the same period a year earlier. Foxconn is primarily known as the main contract manufacturer for Apple but its largest business is now cloud and networking products, including AI servers.

Foxconn’s figures might have helped soothe any concerns resulting from HPE, which reported lower-than-expected revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter as customers hit delays in development of their AI products. HPE’s server revenue fell 5% to $4.46 billion in the fourth quarter.

Among other chip makers, Advanced Micro Devices was rising 0.7% and Broadcom was gaining 0.9% in premarket trading.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com