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What happened: <\/strong>Semiconductor stocks rose on Thursday. Qualcomm (QCOM<\/a>) surged 9% in early trading, while Broadcom (AVGO<\/a>), and AMD (AMD<\/a>) climbed higher as well. Memory and storage players Sandisk (SNDK<\/a>), Western Digital (WDC<\/a>), and Seagate (STX<\/a>) also rose.<\/p>\n What\u2019s behind the move: <\/strong>Big Tech earnings from companies like Meta Platforms<\/a> (META<\/a>) and Microsoft<\/a> (MSFT<\/a>) showed hyperscalers plan to grow their capital expenditures on artificial intelligence infrastructure.<\/p>\n Wall Street sees chip infrastructure players needed for AI data centers as beneficieraes of the AI trade. Meta and Microsoft on Wednesday called out rising costs for data center components such as memory chips. The cost of memory and data storage has risen, benefiting companies like Sandisk (SNDK<\/a>), Western Digital (WDC<\/a>), and Seagate (STX<\/a>), which posted strong results<\/a> .<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Qualcomm\u2019s better-than-expected first quarter results<\/a> also lifted the broader chip sector. The company said it expects to ship custom silicon to an unnamed hyperscaler later this year.<\/p>\n The maker of smartphone processors said it sees the market for Chinese phones bottoming in the current quarter. Earlier this week Qualcomm shares surged after tech analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from TF International Securities<\/a> said that OpenAI (OPAI.PVT<\/a>) is working with the company to develop smartphone processors.<\/p>\n What else you need to know: <\/strong>Semiconductor stocks have been on fire in recent weeks amid investors\u2019 growing focus on agentic AI, in which bots or agents act on users\u2019 behalf.<\/p>\n Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at <\/em>@ines_ferre<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Click here for an in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n