NEW YORK, February 3, 2026, 10:13 ET — Regular session
- Palantir climbs in early trading, fueling interest in AI stocks
- Shares tied to AI hardware jump after new company announcements
- After Nvidia’s slide, traders gear up for AMD’s earnings release post-close
By around 10 a.m. ET, Palantir’s shares had climbed 5.1% to $155.30, fueling momentum in AI stocks on Tuesday.
Wall Street started the week riding the AI wave again, building on Monday’s rally in chip stocks that lifted the S&P 500 by 0.54%. “The fundamentals are good and earnings are strong,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder. Big tech names like Alphabet and Amazon are set to report earnings this week. Reuters
Here’s the crux: investors have poured money into anything connected to AI, but it’s earnings that put that hype to the test. What really counts now is guidance, not just beating estimates.
Palantir reported a 66% jump in quarterly U.S. government revenue, reaching $570 million and pushing total sales to $1.41 billion. The company projects 2026 revenue between $7.18 billion and $7.20 billion. CEO Alex Karp emphasized the platform’s “granular permissioning,” ensuring the government “can see only what ought to be seen.” Still, eToro analyst Zavier Wong noted that “valuation question marks won’t disappear” for a stock trading at roughly 140 times next year’s expected earnings — a forward P/E based on these forecasts. Reuters
Teradyne climbed 7.5% following a more than 20% jump in after-hours trading Monday, buoyed by a forecast for first-quarter revenue and profit that topped estimates thanks to AI-driven demand. CEO Greg Smith highlighted expected growth across all business segments in 2026, citing “strong momentum in compute driven by AI.” Reuters
Western Digital rose 1.4% following an announcement that it’s boosting its share repurchase plan by $4 billion. The company linked the buyback to strong demand for memory chips powering AI servers, citing tight supply that’s driven up prices and stretched lead times.
AI giants showed varied moves: Nvidia dipped 1.9%, AMD was down 0.6%, Microsoft slipped 2.0%, yet Alphabet inched higher by 0.5%. C3.ai declined 2.2%.
Europe threw up a red flag. RELX and Wolters Kluwer dropped over 10% after traders flagged Anthropic’s new legal plug-in for its Claude chatbot, stirring fresh skepticism about incumbents holding onto their business models. “The software companies were assumed to be winners from AI,” said Lars Skovgaard, senior investment strategist at Danske Bank. Reuters
Elon Musk revealed that SpaceX has snapped up his AI startup xAI, valuing the companies at $1 trillion and $250 billion, respectively. PitchBook analyst Ali Javaheri noted that Starlink was already generating strong cash flow and “now it adds an AI revenue layer” as SpaceX gears up for a potential IPO. Reuters
Government-linked tech firms are facing heightened scrutiny. Capgemini announced plans to sell a U.S. subsidiary following backlash over a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “You don’t need to have that kind of spotlight on you right now,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth. Reuters
AMD is set to release its fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results after the bell, followed by a conference call at 5:00 p.m. EST. Investors will be focused on guidance for data-center chips and looking for signs that AI demand might be easing.
