(Reuters) -Semiconductor stocks advanced on Thursday after top contract chipmaker TSMC issued a rosy forecast, fanning optimism about demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure in a week of multi-billion-dollar deals across the sector. The company posted a record quarterly profit and raised its annual revenue expectation, pointing to robust demand from customers including AI chip giant Nvidia and Apple. Earlier this week, major deals were announced in the AI sector. A $40 billion acquisition of data-center operator Aligned by a BlackRock-led group, which followed a pact between OpenAI and Broadcom to build 10 gigawatts of custom chips, enough to power more than 8 million U.S. households. The developments show that Wall Street's "picks and shovels" trade around AI hardware remains strong nearly three years after ChatGPT's debut, as Big Tech and startups race to build systems that can match or surpass human intelligence. "This isn't just a transient spike. TSMC's blowout quarter tells a clear story … this is no longer a cyclical story, it's structural," said AvaTrade's chief market analyst Kate Leaman. Shares of memory chipmaker Micron Technology jumped about 4%, extending a strong 2025 rally as demand for high-bandwidth memory used in AI servers stays tight. Its rival Samsung Electronics closed 2.8% on the South Korean bourse. Nvidia rose 1.2%, whereas Marvell Technology gained 1.3% and Broadcom climbed 2.4%. On Wednesday, Salesforce projected revenue exceeding $60 billion by 2030, driven by rapid AI integration across its cloud services, reflecting broader enterprise investment trends that support sustained demand for advanced semiconductors. (Reporting by Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
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