Stocks rally to start the week, Nasdaq jumps 1% on Anthropic IPO enthusiasm

Stocks rose Monday as semiconductor makers rallied after Anthropic’s IPO filing revived enthusiasm for the AI trade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 126 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 gained 0.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1%.

Chip stocks and other AI-related shares rose as Anthropic publicly filed for an IPO, an offering investors are betting will add new life to the flagging tech sector. The AI company reported $16.29 billion in revenue for the six months ended June, a 1,304% increase from $1.16 billion during the same period a year earlier. It plans to list on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol “ANT.”

Other major AI headlines added to the risk-on sentiment. Meta Platforms said Monday it is planning to raise $95 billion to support its AI investments. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said over the weekend that the satellite and rocket launch company has closed a $40 billion debt deal for AI chips.

Semiconductors rallied, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) popping more than 3%. Shares of Nvidia climbed 2.6%, Micron increased 2%, Broadcom rose 2.2% and Advanced Micro Devices edged higher by 1.1%.

“The market needed this, just like it needed SpaceX,” Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, said in regards to Anthropic. “This is a big confidence booster, and I anticipate the demand is going to be there because people have been waiting and talking about this one for a long time.”