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Futures: Dow flat, S&P up 0.46%, Nasdaq up 0.80%

May 23 (Reuters) - Futures tracking the tech-heavy

Nasdaq and the benchmark S&P 500 climbed on Thursday as chip

stocks rallied after Nvidia's ( NVDA ) upbeat revenue forecast cemented

investor optimism around the meteoric rise of artificial

intelligence technology.

AI chip leader Nvidia ( NVDA ) jumped 6.8% in premarket

trading, breaching the $1,000 mark for the first time ever and

on track to add about $155 billion in market value if gains

hold.

The semiconductor bellwether also announced a stock split,

following an over 90% surge in its shares this year and a

threefold jump in 2023 that have made Nvidia ( NVDA ) the third-most

valuable U.S. stock.

"Nvidia's ( NVDA ) earnings supported our expectations that the AI

rally has plenty of more room to run... We stay positive on the

AI trend and maintain our preference for big tech given the

advantageous market positions," said Mark Haefele, chief

investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management.

Other chip stocks including Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ),

Micron Technology ( MU ), Broadcom ( AVGO ), and Arm Holdings

advanced between 2.2% and 3.8%.

AI-related stocks also rose, with Super Micro Computer ( SMCI )

, C3.ai ( AI ), Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ) and

SoundHound AI ( SOUN ) gaining between 1.4% and 4.4%.

Meanwhile, Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on

Wednesday as investors digested minutes of the Federal Reserve's

latest policy meeting. Rate-setters indicated they still had

faith price pressures would ease at least slowly in coming

months, but doubts emerged about whether the current level of

interest rates was high enough to ensure that outcome.

Traders currently expect the U.S. central bank to reduce its

interest rates by nearly 40 basis points by year-end.

Markets are also eyeing economic data scheduled through the

day including weekly jobless claims, S&P Global flash PMIs and

housing figures.

At 4:44 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 5 points, or

0.01%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 24.5 points, or 0.46%,

and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 149.5 points, or 0.8%.

The Cboe Volatility Index, also known as Wall

Street's "fear gauge", hit its lowest levels since November

2019.

Among other premarket movers, data cloud analytics firm

Snowflake advanced 4.3% after forecasting

second-quarter product revenue above estimates and raising its

annual expectations.

U.S.-listed shares of Taiwanese contract chipmaker TSMC

rose 3.2% after forecasting an annual revenue growth of

10% in the global semiconductor industry, excluding memory

chips.

DuPont ( DD ) climbed 4.4% on the U.S. conglomerate's plans

to split into three publicly traded companies.

(Reporting by Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika

Syamnath)