The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) opened higher Thursday after a wave of mega-cap tech earnings, a 2% Q1 GDP print, and a pullback in crude oil. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL | GOOGL Price Prediction) is doing the heavy lifting on cloud strength, while Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Meta (NASDAQ:META) are dragging on AI capex concerns. On the economic front, a GDP surprise is helping to boost overall market sentiment despite a separate report indicating that inflation still runs hot. For the month, the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) is on track for an impressive 12.8% advance.
The earnings driving the move
Alphabet is the biggest weight-mover. Q1 revenue of nearly $110 billion grew 22%, with Google Cloud at $20 billion (+63%) and backlog nearly doubling to over $460 billion. CEO Sundar Pichai called 2026 a “terrific start,” and shares jumped roughly 7% in the hour after filing.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) cleared the bar with EPS of $2.78 against $1.73 consensus and AWS growth of 28%, its fastest pace in 15 quarters. Microsoft beat on EPS and pushed its AI run rate to $37 billion, up 123%, though a softer revenue tone sent shares about 2% lower. Meta is the laggard, off roughly 9% pre-market after raising full-year capex guidance to $125 to $145 billion and absorbing a $4 billion Reality Labs loss.
Qualcomm added fuel to the chip rally, up 4% Wednesday and 15% on the week as CEO Cristiano Amon confirmed a hyperscaler custom-silicon engagement on track for shipments later this year. NVIDIA has gained 27% in the past month on the same agentic-AI infrastructure thesis lifting the index.
Macro backdrop: GDP firm, oil softer, inflation hotter
Q1 real GDP grew 2%, a recovery from half a percent in Q4 2025, with business investment up 9% offsetting cooler consumer spending near 2%. WTI crude has retreated to about $100 from a 12-month peak near $115 earlier this month, easing the energy impulse, though headline PCE accelerated to nearly 4% year over year in March on a 14% energy spike. The VIX is near 18, well below its late-March peak of 31.
Semiconductors Capture the Spending
That spending flows directly to chipmakers. Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) jumped 9% in premarket after a beat, guiding to a bottoming Chinese smartphone market and confirming custom silicon shipments to an unnamed hyperscaler later this year. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) climbed 12%, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) added 4%, and Seagate Technology rose 11% alongside Western Digital. The agentic AI narrative, where software agents act on users’ behalf, has pulled CPU and accelerator suppliers higher.
What it means for tech investors
Today’s session reads as an AI capex referendum. Cloud demand is real, with Alphabet’s $460 billion backlog and AWS reaccelerating, but the bill is climbing fast. Meta’s penalty for stretching its capex range shows investors will fund AI buildouts only where revenue follows. With the 10-year Treasury yield near 4% and core PCE near 3%, the Nasdaq’s advance comes against an inflation backdrop that complicates Fed rate-cut math. Apple’s earnings are next, so watch for them.
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