Stocks declined on Wednesday, but the different sectors of the stock market showed different performances: The Dow Jones edged down, losing 0.03%, while the S&P 500 declined further (0.21%) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite underperformed, falling 0.66% as investors reassess winners and losers of the next leg of the AI boom.
CNBC noted that several semiconductor companies plunged. Micron fell by 9%, while Sandisk did so by 10%. Both companies, however, have recorded triple-digit gains so far this year. Nvidia lost 1% and Broadcom fell 2%.
Declines were stemmed by the performance of Meta, which rose almost 10% following a report that the social media giant is preparing to launch a cloud computing business aimed at selling excess artificial intelligence computing capacity.
Bloomberg News detailed that Meta is developing a cloud business that would allow outside customers to access the company's AI infrastructure and computing power, clarifying that the plan remains under development and could still change.
The sharp gain helped reverse part of Meta's disappointing performance this year. Before Wednesday's jump, the stock had fallen nearly 15% in 2026 as investors questioned whether Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's massive AI spending spree would generate meaningful financial returns.
The reported strategy would put Meta in direct competition with established cloud giants such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, while also challenging specialized AI infrastructure providers including CoreWeave and Nebius.
The session follows the end of the first half of the year, which saw large gains in major indexes. The Nasdaq 100 gained 19.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 12.79%, the S&P 500 added 9.55% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 8.85%.
European markets also finished higher, although performance varied across the region. Spain's IBEX 35 gained 12.5%, Italy's FTSE MIB rose 14.7%, Portugal's PSI added 10.5%, and the broader STOXX 600 index climbed more than 8%.
The trend extended across regional benchmarks. Europe's STOXX 600 Technology Index rose 23.4% between January and June, ahead of the S&P 500 Information Technology Index, which advanced 19.4%.
Several other stock markets delivered much stronger returns. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index gained 24%, South Korea's Kospi jumped 101.1%, and Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced about 39% during the first half of the year.
The broader shift reflected growing investor confidence in companies supplying the hardware needed for artificial intelligence, rather than concentrating solely on software and cloud-computing leaders. Semiconductor manufacturers benefited from continued demand for advanced processors, memory chips and chipmaking equipment, Reuters reported.
