Advanced Micro Devices closed at $615.52 on September 21, up about 10 percent, and crossed a $1 trillion market value for the first time — the fourth U.S. chipmaker in that club, and a verdict on how little the Federal Reserve's first hike in three years is slowing the AI hardware trade.
Reuters and market data put the close near $1.00 trillion to $1.005 trillion on roughly 1.63 billion shares. The Nasdaq Composite jumped about 2.3 percent to 27,122.09, its first record close since June. Intel rose about 12 percent, Arm Holdings about 17 percent, and Meta more than 11 percent. Nvidia already sat well above $5 trillion. AMD's five-day gain was about 24 percent, with year-to-date performance above 180 percent.
The tape had help. Brent crude fell about 3.4 percent to $100.34 a barrel, an 11-day low, and West Texas Intermediate dropped about 4.5 percent to $95.78. The 10-year Treasury yield slipped back below 5 percent, to about 4.95 percent, after sitting at levels last seen in 2007. Oil and duration had been the two arguments for a deeper de-rating of growth stocks. Both eased on the same day the chip complex decided the Fed had not ended the cycle.
The tension is sequencing. A rate hike is supposed to tighten financial conditions. A $1 trillion print for a company that spent a decade as Nvidia's distant No. 2 says investors are underwriting data-center demand past the first tight print. If yields reverse higher into the Trump-Xi week, the club membership will look like a squeeze. If they do not, the hike will have been a speed bump on the way to a four-name semiconductor oligopoly priced as infrastructure.
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