AI investors are desperately trying to find clues on the real impact of DeepSeek on chip demand in the future and gauge how the breakthrough in China would impact US companies.

Certain Wall Street analysts expect Nvidia and Microsoft to achieve market values of $4 trillion in 2025, something no publicly traded company has accomplished. Nvidia is the market leader in data center graphics processing units,

Key Takeaways The stocks of software companies such as Salesforce have soared this week on hopes that Chinese start-up DeepSeek's cost-efficient AI model could make AI applications significantly less expensive to develop and run.

Optimists looking for an encore performance from Wall Street were handsomely rewarded in 2024. Last year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite all achieved multiple record-closing highs and ended higher by 13%, 23%, and 29%, respectively.

Tesla, IBM and Meta Platforms helped lead most US stocks higher on Thursday following a rush of profit reports from some of the country’s most influential companies. The S&P 500 rose 0.5%, as four out of every five stocks in the index climbed.