Updated for premarket trading at ~6:00 a.m. ET on Friday, December 12, 2025. Semiconductor stocks are heading into the U.S. open with investors balancing two powerful—and competing—forces: continued blockbuster AI infrastructure demand and fresh anxiety that the spending boom is getting too expensive to sustain.
The biggest chip-stock catalyst this morning is Broadcom (AVGO), which is trading lower in premarket despite upbeat revenue guidance, after management highlighted gross-margin pressure tied to the fast-growing AI segment. At the same time, Oracle’s post-earnings selloff has sparked another round of “AI bubble” debates that are rippling through high-multiple chip leaders and the broader Nasdaq complex. [1]
Below is what’s moving U.S.-listed semiconductor stocks before the bell, what analysts are saying, and the key themes to watch as the market opens.
Semiconductor stocks premarket: key movers at ~6:00 a.m. ET
Premarket prices can change quickly—especially on heavy earnings news—so consider this a snapshot close to 6:00 a.m. ET.
From Investing.com’s U.S. premarket list (timestamps around 05:46–05:50 ET):
- Broadcom (AVGO): $384.45, -5.39% (among top premarket losers) [2]
- Nvidia (NVDA): $179.67, -0.70% [3]
- Micron (MU): $253.77, -1.81% [4]
- AMD (AMD): $218.71, -1.23% [5]
- Applied Materials (AMAT): $267.27, -1.05% [6]
- Monolithic Power (MPWR): $960.01, -2.19% [7]
Sector context: Semiconductor ETFs were already on the back foot in the prior session, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) down about 2.9% and VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) down about 2.3% at Thursday’s close. [8]
Why chip stocks are moving today: the three premarket drivers
1) Broadcom earnings: strong AI demand, but margins are the new battleground
Broadcom delivered a classic “beat-and-raise” headline—yet the stock is sliding because the market’s focus has shifted from growth to profitability quality and AI economics.
What Broadcom reported and guided
- Broadcom forecast $19.1 billion in upcoming-quarter revenue, ahead of Street expectations cited by Reuters. [9]
- Management said AI semiconductor revenue is expected to double to $8.2 billion in the current quarter—another sign that hyperscaler and AI-lab spending is still intense. [10]
- The company also discussed a large AI order backlog slated for delivery over the next 18 months. [11]
Why the stock is down anyway
- Reuters reported Broadcom warned of a sequential gross margin decline (about 100 bps), tied to mix shift toward AI products and the investment intensity of that business. [12]
- The Wall Street Journal framed the same issue more bluntly: investors are worrying about stagnant non‑AI revenue and lower margins from the fast-growing AI chip business, even with record sales and profit. [13]
- Barron’s and MarketWatch both emphasized that, in late 2025, “good AI news” sometimes isn’t enough—investors want more customer detail, more confidence about sustained demand, and less margin compression. [14]
The customer details that mattered
A notable takeaway from today’s coverage: Broadcom’s CEO identified Anthropic as the customer behind a previously discussed large order, and described additional orders extending into 2026. [15]
That kind of disclosure is important because it sharpens a debate that’s now central to semiconductor valuation: Is AI demand broadening across customers, or concentrating into a small group whose budgets could eventually hit limits?
2) Oracle’s earnings shock: “AI circular spending” fears return—and chip stocks feel it
Even though Oracle isn’t a chipmaker, it has become a key sentiment lever for the “AI infrastructure trade.” The reason: Oracle’s cloud build-out is directly linked to buying large amounts of compute, networking, and storage—areas where semiconductors dominate the bill of materials.
What happened
- Reuters pointed to Oracle’s sharp drop after weak forecasts and rising data-center investment as a driver of renewed volatility in tech. [16]
- Business Insider highlighted investor worries that Oracle’s capex ramp could be a sign that companies are overspending on AI and cloud infrastructure, pressuring AI-exposed names (including chip leaders). [17]
- MarketWatch described the spillover into AI-related stocks and framed Oracle as a bellwether for broader concerns about debt-funded buildouts and profitability. [18]
Why it matters for semiconductors
Chip stocks have rallied hard through 2025 on the thesis that AI capex will be both huge and durable. Oracle’s report reignited the “great question” investors keep returning to:
If capex is rising faster than revenue or margins, who eventually pays—and does the spend slow?
That’s why, even with Broadcom’s strong AI guidance, the market is now interrogating capex efficiency and return on invested capital—not just revenue growth.
3) Nvidia headlines: geopolitics and “where the chips go” are back in focus
Nvidia remains the center of gravity for U.S. semiconductor sentiment, and today’s news flow underscores how much of NVDA’s story is now shaped by policy risk and export controls, not just product cycles.
Congressional scrutiny on China-linked chip sales
Reuters reported Senator Elizabeth Warren urged Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (and the Commerce Secretary) to testify after President Trump’s approval for sales of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to China, citing national security concerns and pointing to the contrast between regulated exports and illegal smuggling enforcement. [19]
Anti-smuggling tech
Reuters also reported Nvidia has developed a location verification capability designed to help identify which country its AI chips are being used in—positioned as a tool to combat smuggling into restricted markets. Nvidia emphasized it is not a “kill switch” that can remotely disable chips. [20]
Demand signal from Taiwan’s “sovereign AI” push
Separately, Reuters covered Taiwan opening a new cloud computing center with a high-performance supercomputer using large quantities of Nvidia H200 and Blackwell chips—another data point suggesting demand isn’t limited to U.S. hyperscalers. [21]
Investor takeaway: geopolitics can now swing Nvidia sentiment even when demand is strong. That policy premium (or discount) can cascade into the whole semiconductor complex—especially AI accelerators, networking silicon, and advanced memory.
Intel news today: foundry strategy meets supply-chain and security questions
Intel (INTC) enters Friday with a fresh headline that may matter for both the stock and the U.S. chipmaking ecosystem.
Reuters published an exclusive that Intel has tested chipmaking tools from ACM Research, a supplier that has a sanctioned China unit, raising questions about supply-chain risk and national-security sensitivities in the semiconductor equipment pipeline. [22]
For Intel investors, this intersects with a broader theme: the company’s long-term turnaround depends not only on product execution (client and server) but also on foundry execution—and foundry execution depends on reliable, geopolitically safe access to manufacturing tools, process tech, and partners.
Micron and the memory trade: bullish forecasts into the next earnings catalyst
While AI accelerators and networking chips grab headlines, memory has been a critical performance driver during 2025—especially as AI infrastructure pulls through HBM (high-bandwidth memory) and tightens supply.
One reason Micron is on traders’ radar this morning (despite being down premarket) is a drumbeat of bullish analyst commentary into the upcoming reporting cycle:
- Barchart highlighted bullish views tied to the DRAM rally and the idea that supply tightness could extend into 2026, alongside reiterated positive ratings and targets from major banks. [23]
Memory investors are watching two things closely:
- Pricing power (DRAM and HBM) and whether it remains tight through 2026
- AI mix—how much of Micron’s incremental margin comes from data-center and AI memory vs. consumer or PC cycles
Analyst lens: “chip neutrality,” custom silicon, and the next phase of AI spending
A theme cutting across today’s reports is that the AI semiconductor market is expanding—but also fragmenting.
Custom AI chips are growing—benefiting Broadcom, challenging the “one winner” narrative
Reuters emphasized Broadcom’s push into custom AI accelerators (ASICs) for major clients as alternatives to Nvidia GPUs, while also flagging the margin implications of that mix shift. [24]
The WSJ went further on long-term market structure, citing expectations that custom AI chips could become a meaningful share of accelerated computing by decade’s end. [25]
Oracle’s “chip neutrality” messaging hits Nvidia sentiment—while helping AMD’s narrative
Barron’s reported that Oracle’s comments about being “chip neutral” and expanding work with AMD contributed to a pullback in Nvidia shares after Oracle’s results. [26]
At the same time, at least one major Wall Street stance remains strongly pro‑Nvidia: Investing.com reported Bank of America reiterated Nvidia as a top pick, arguing its GPUs remain a generation ahead and pointing to the performance leap expected with Blackwell. [27]
Net-net: Investors may be rotating within semiconductors—rewarding clearer near-term earnings visibility and punishing anything that looks like margin dilution or demand concentration.
What to watch at the U.S. open: semiconductor stock checklist for Dec. 12, 2025
1) Does AVGO stabilize—or keep sliding?
Broadcom is the premarket linchpin today. If investors decide the margin pressure is temporary (or already priced in), chip ETFs can recover quickly. If not, the whole group can open heavy. [28]
2) Can NVDA shake off Oracle jitters?
Nvidia is down modestly premarket, but the stock has been headline-driven this week: Oracle’s AI-spend debate, plus export-policy and anti-smuggling news. [29]
3) Memory and semicap follow-through
Micron and Applied Materials are both lower premarket; investors will be watching whether the “AI capex anxiety” is broadening from accelerators into memory and wafer-fab equipment names. [30]
4) The macro overlay: rates, risk appetite, and tech multiples
Reuters noted markets are still digesting the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut and the evolving path for 2026—important because semiconductors are highly sensitive to discount-rate and growth expectations. [31]
Bottom line: AI demand is strong, but the market is pricing AI profitability, not just AI revenue
As of early Friday, the semiconductor story in U.S. premarket trading is not about whether AI is real—it’s about who captures the profits, how concentrated the customers are, and whether spending can continue rising without stressing balance sheets.
Broadcom’s margin commentary and Oracle’s capex shock are forcing the market to ask harder questions, even as policy headlines keep Nvidia in the spotlight. The result, at least into today’s open: higher volatility and sharper differentiation among chip stocks—even within the same “AI winners” basket. [32]
This article is for informational purposes and reflects publicly reported news and market data as of the time noted above.
References
1. www.reuters.com, 2. www.investing.com, 3. www.investing.com, 4. www.investing.com, 5. www.investing.com, 6. www.investing.com, 7. www.investing.com, 8. stockanalysis.com, 9. www.reuters.com, 10. www.reuters.com, 11. www.reuters.com, 12. www.reuters.com, 13. www.wsj.com, 14. www.barrons.com, 15. www.barrons.com, 16. www.reuters.com, 17. www.businessinsider.com, 18. www.marketwatch.com, 19. www.reuters.com, 20. www.reuters.com, 21. www.reuters.com, 22. www.reuters.com, 23. www.barchart.com, 24. www.reuters.com, 25. www.wsj.com, 26. www.barrons.com, 27. www.investing.com, 28. www.investing.com, 29. www.investing.com, 30. www.investing.com, 31. www.reuters.com, 32. www.reuters.com
