Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI) is bucking the broader selloff Monday, trading roughly 4% higher even as the Nasdaq gets hammered - a notable reversal after the stock was pummeled 8.5% on Friday. What Sparked the Drop
Friday's pain came from two directions. May payrolls came in at 172,000 - more than double the 80,000 consensus estimate - pushing the 10-year yield above 4.5% and leaving little room for the Federal Reserve to cut rates anytime soon. That's bad news for high-multiple growth stocks like SMCI, whose valuations are heavily dependent on the expectation of lower rates ahead. Broadcom's earnings, reported June 3, added to the drag - while the results were strong, guidance disappointed investors who had been expecting even more from AI chip demand, and the hangover spilled over into the broader AI hardware space.
Today's bounce looks like a dip buy, with traders stepping back in after what many viewed as an overreaction.
AMD, Arm, and a $2 Billion India Deal
SMCI has had a busy few weeks on the product front. The company unveiled its AMD Helios rack-scale platform at Computex Taipei on June 2 - a 72-GPU system built on AMD Instinct MI455X GPUs - while also announcing a new collaboration with Arm to develop AI infrastructure servers powered by Arm AGI processors. A separately announced $2 billion AI infrastructure deal with Gorilla Technology for India deployments added near-term revenue visibility.
The Overhang
The elephant in the room remains the compliance scandal. In March, federal prosecutors charged Super Micro's co-founder Wally Liaw and two others with conspiring to smuggle roughly $2.5 billion worth of Nvidia-equipped servers to China through shell companies in Southeast Asia. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang publicly urged Super Micro to tighten its export compliance controls in May. The company has since taken steps to get ahead of the story - on May 28 it announced it had collaborated with Taiwanese authorities to prevent further diversion, resulting in three arrests and the seizure of 50 servers. Super Micro has said it is not named as a defendant and is cooperating with the investigation.
Super Micro Shares Gain
SMCI Price Action: At the time of publication, Super Micro shares are trading 6.36% higher at $44.29, according to data from Benzinga Pro.