Piper Sandler analyst Harsh V. Kumar noted that last week, the SOX was up 2%, while the NASDAQ and S&P were up 1% and 2%, respectively. 

Starting in geopolitics, the U.S. is again cracking down on China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. The government has revoked licenses to Intel Corp ( INTC ) and Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM ) . 

Kumar noted that the move forced Intel ( INTC ) to revise its quarterly revenue guidance, while Qualcomm ( QCOM ) did not make any changes due to its low exposure to Huawei. 

The analyst noted that Qualcomm ( QCOM ) only provided 4G modems and other Wi-Fi products to the company and expected product revenues to disappear by the end of the year. 

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co ( TSM ) also reported April revenues this week, which were up significantly year-on-year to the tune of ~60%, Kumar flagged. He noted this is largely driven by leading-edge customers such as Nvidia Corp ( NVDA ) and Apple Inc (AAPL). On Apple, the company is reportedly looking to work on implementing OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its next version of iOS.  

Recent reports indicated that Arm Holdings Inc plans to commercialize its first AI chips by fall 2025.

Meanwhile, China became stricter in its retaliation to the U.S. embargo on AI chips. It canvassed its domestic tech firms, including Alibaba Group Holding Limited ( BABA ) , to use domestic AI chips.