We’re only a few weeks into earnings season, but the message from Silicon Valley to Wall Street is crystal clear: AI demand is still on fire.
From chipmakers and equipment suppliers to memory leaders and software designers, every major player has said the same thing – spending is accelerating, margins are expanding, and visibility has never been stronger.
The skeptics keep waiting for cracks to show. Instead, these results reveal the opposite: the AI trade is showing nothing but strength.
So, if you’ve been waiting for the ‘slowdown’ headline… don’t. It’s not coming.
Here’s what the latest tech earnings tell us…
AI Titans Set the Pace for Tech Earnings Season
ASML: The Chip-Equipment Powerhouse Riding AI Demand
ASML (ASML) – arguably the linchpin of global semiconductor manufacturing – set the tone early.
Bookings rose to $6.28 billion, higher than expected, while gross margins expanded to 52%. Management didn’t mince words, citing AI and high-performance computing as ‘multi-year tailwinds’ expected to drive sustained demand for advanced lithography systems.
The company raised its long-term revenue growth target to 8- to 14% annually through 2030, underscoring confidence that chip-equipment demand will remain stable despite cyclical headwinds.
If AI is a gold rush, ASML makes the shovels. And demand for those shovels is only accelerating.
TSM: Foundry Giant Sees Record AI Chip Revenue Growth
Then we have Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), the foundry titan. Its report was a masterclass in AI leverage.
Revenue surged more than 40% year-over-year, with management crediting – you guessed it – relentless demand for AI server and high-performance computing (HPC) chips. In fact, AI and HPC now account for roughly 60% of total revenue, up from just over half a year ago…
In our view, the message couldn’t be clearer: AI is now the primary growth engine for the world’s most important chipmaker.
AI Infrastructure Spending Keeps Equipment Makers Busy
Lam Research: AI Capex Wave Fuels Equipment Orders
Equipment maker Lam Research (LRCX) kept the momentum rolling. Its results and guidance showed robust demand for deposition and etching equipment – the critical kit that fabs use to churn out advanced chips.
The driver? AI-related infrastructure spending. Lam is a direct beneficiary of the hyperscalers’ spending spree on GPU clusters and the chipmakers’ need to keep fabs stocked and humming. As CEO Tim Archer noted, “with our expanding portfolio of products and solutions across critical device segments, we are strongly positioned for continued growth.”
Translation: The global AI capex wave is keeping Lam’s order books very full.
But of course, the AI build-out isn’t just about logic chips. It’s about making sure those chips have the high-bandwidth memory they need to operate at full speed…
Rambus: Memory Interface Leader Riding AI Data Center Growth
Enter Rambus (RMBS), a company known for its memory-interface expertise. The firm reported a very strong third quarter, with GAAP revenue of $178.5 million and record product revenue of $93.3 million.
The company also generated $88.4 million in cash from operations, underscoring how demand for its DDR5 memory interface chips and register clock drivers (RCDs) continues to scale alongside AI data center buildouts.
President and CEO Luc Seraphin said the company’s “sustained DDR5 product leadership and ramping contributions from new products” are putting Rambus on track for full-year product revenue growth that outpaces the market. He added that, with its core expertise in signal- and power-integrity, Rambus is well-positioned amid strong secular trends in data centers and AI to drive long-term profitable growth.
For investors, Rambus’ record quarter is another reminder that AI demand doesn’t stop at GPUs. It’s rippling through the entire semiconductor ecosystem, especially memory bandwidth and interface technology.
Cadence Design: Software Driving the AI Chip Design Boom
Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) – a leader in electronic design automation (EDA) software – posted another solid quarter as AI-related chip design activity continued to expand.
The company reported Q3 revenue of $1.34 billion, up from $1.22 billion a year earlier, with operating margins improving to 31.8% and EPS showing strong year-over-year growth.
Backlog remains robust at a record $7 billion, with $3.5 billion of that expected to convert to revenue within the next 12 months. Speaking to that momentum, President and CEO Anirudh Devgan said, “With a record backlog and ongoing broad-based strength of our business, we are raising our full year revenue outlook to ~14% growth year-over-year.”
Management noted continued strength across AI and custom silicon design projects as key growth drivers. With the world’s largest chipmakers deepening their reliance on Cadence’s design tools to accelerate next-generation architectures, the company remains a critical enabler of the AI hardware boom.
Celestica: The Surprising AI Hardware Winner on Wall Street
Perhaps best of all was Celestica (CLS). The contract electronics manufacturer once known for its steady, low-growth operations has transformed into one of the most direct beneficiaries of the AI hardware build-out.
In its latest quarter, the company reported revenue up 28% year-over-year, driven by a surge in demand from data-center customers. Communications segment sales, which include AI-related hardware, jumped more than 80%, while operating margins expanded by 80 basis points and earnings per share rose over 50%.
Management described the strength in unmistakable terms: “AI demand shows no signs of slowing.” That comment sums up why Celestica’s growth trajectory looks so different today. The company may not design chips; but it’s assembling the racks, systems, and enclosures that house them.
As hyperscalers race to deploy more compute infrastructure, those orders keep piling up, turning Celestica into an unexpected AI infrastructure winner hiding in plain sight.
Across Tech, AI Earnings Show Acceleration – Not a Plateau
Across the sector, we’re seeing a consistent pattern:
- AI-related revenue growth is accelerating across semiconductors, memory, and design software.
- Operating margins are expanding as higher-value AI products mix in.
- Management guidance remains broadly positive through 2025.
It’s the same story whether you’re talking about a lithography giant, a foundry titan, an equipment supplier, a memory IP play, a design software firm, a contract manufacturer, even a streaming service.
Skeptics can keep arguing that AI is overhyped. The numbers say otherwise.
And here’s what that means for investors…
Earnings season always serves as a reality check. It’s one thing for Wall Street strategists to debate whether AI demand is ‘sustainable.’ It’s another for the companies actually making the picks and shovels to report back from the trenches.
And what they’re telling us this quarter is simple: the AI Boom is not slowing down.
If anything, the build-out is still in the early innings.
We’re talking about trillion-dollar capex cycles by the hyperscalers, multi-year upgrade cycles in semiconductor equipment, and entirely new categories of silicon being designed, tested, and deployed. That’s the kind of demand environment that sustains long bull runs in tech stocks.
And that’s why the ‘all-in with artificial intelligence’ strategy – ‘AI with AI’ – remains the smartest playbook for investors today.
Bottom Line: AI’s Earnings Strength Confirms a Durable Tech Supercycle
We’re only part of the way through earnings season, but the early results already paint a clear picture:
- AI is driving results across the tech stack.
- Companies aren’t just holding up; they’re thriving.
- Guidance and commentary are as bullish as we’ve ever seen.
As long as management commentary remains this positive – and earnings reports continue to confirm it – AI will stay the dominant growth driver in tech.
The buildout may evolve. But so far, the data shows a durable, broad-based investment cycle rather than a fading trend.
And importantly, the same powerful forces driving this earnings boom – faster chips, smarter software, and massive capex – are now propelling the next frontier of automation: humanoid robotics.
The biggest opportunities in that space aren’t the headline-makers like Tesla (TSLA) or OpenAI… but the little-known suppliers making the actuators, sensors, and specialized semiconductors that bring these machines to life.
