An interactive display featuring artificial intelligence at the iRootech Technology Co. office in Guangzhou, China, Wednesday, April 15, 2026.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Hello, my name is Justina Lee from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
Artificial intelligence remains a market favorite, and investors continue to rename semiconductors and technologies as companies race to build the next stage of the AI ecosystem. Amazon Web Services is also expanding into forward-deployed engineering, an increasingly competitive area of the industry dominated by companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.
China’s consumer outlook is also back in the spotlight after Nike saw its sales in Greater China fall 12%, even as Chinese factory activity showed signs of improvement.
Meanwhile, Brent crude posted its biggest monthly decline since March 2020 as investors bet on the possibility that tensions in the Middle East conflict could continue to ease.
What you need to know today
The AI boom continues to reshape the market.
Investors are pouring money into semiconductor companies beyond Nvidia, betting that building AI data centers will benefit a broader range of chipmakers and infrastructure companies.
Intel, Micron, and Advanced Micro Devices gained a combined market capitalization of nearly $2 trillion in the second quarter, making them among the most valuable tech companies in the United States and reflecting growing confidence in the next phase of AI spending.
This is consistent with what analysts have said previously. There could be a “changing of the guard” within the AI industry as investors seek exposure to semiconductor companies that complement Nvidia’s chips.
meanwhile, Amazon Web Services is strengthening its presence in forward deployment engineering (FDE) to better compete with OpenAI and Anthropic, which announced their own FDE units earlier this year. The FDE team works with customers to accelerate technology transformation and tailor AI systems to specific business needs.
Beyond tech stocks, investors are also keeping an eye on consumer demand. Sportswear giant Nike announced higher-than-expected quarterly profits, buoyed by expected tax refunds of about $986 million. However, analysts were concerned about growth in China, where sales fell 12%, highlighting the challenges facing one of the company’s most important markets.
China’s manufacturing activity grew faster than expected in June, supported by high-tech production linked to global demand for AI-related products. But the recovery remains uneven.
Real estate investment and consumer goods production remain under pressure, raising questions about whether policymakers need to step up support in the coming months. Goldman Sachs warned that pressure on the Chinese government could increase in the coming months to accelerate government spending and borrowing to boost growth.
In the region, the prospect of new talks between Iran and the US in Qatar pushed Brent crude oil to its biggest monthly decline since March 2020, as investors grew optimistic that tensions in the Middle East conflict could continue to ease.
Brent crude oil futures for September delivery rose about 0.3% in early Asian trading on Wednesday to $73.17 a barrel. The August contract fell about 21% in June, the biggest monthly decline since March 2020. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose about 0.43% to $69.80.
Still, the market remained cautious. Mixed signals surrounding peace talks between Iran and the US suggest investors view the recent detente as fragile.
The Middle East isn’t the only Trump-related headline grabbing investors’ attention.
His annual financial disclosure file, released Tuesday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, has come under scrutiny for revealing hundreds of millions of dollars in income tied to cryptocurrency token proceeds, in addition to holdings across hundreds of individual company stocks.
—Justina Lee
And finally…
PT Go-Jek Indonesia CEO Nadiem Makarim listens to a speech at the Wall Street Journal DLive Asia Conference in Hong Kong, China, Friday, June 9, 2017.
Billy HC Kwok | Bloomberg | Getty
Indonesia’s corruption court on Tuesday sentenced former education minister Nadiem Makarim, co-founder of ride-hailing and payments giant Gojek, to 10 years in prison for corruption.
Makarim was found guilty in a case related to the procurement of Google Chromebooks for schools under the country’s education digitization program, which ran from 2019 to 2022.
Makarim, who served as education minister from 2019 to 2024, was also ordered to pay a fine of 1 billion Indonesian rupiah ($55,870) and compensation of 809.6 billion rupiah. If he fails to repay, he could be sentenced to an additional five years in prison.
—Lim Huijie
