AI Infrastructure:
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What changed in the AI trade, and why it mattered.
Optical and networking stocks sold off hard: Semtech fell 10.2%, Ciena 9.9%, AXT 9.5%, Applied Optoelectronics and Viavi 8.2% each.
Ten of the twelve biggest decliners were networking names, so the selling hit the optical and connectivity layer of AI buildouts rather than the whole trade. Coherent, MaxLinear, Credo and MACOM also fell 7% to 8%. The pack names no company-specific trigger, so this reads as a sector-wide de-rating.
Networking· SMTC, CIEN, AXTI, AAOI, VIAV, COHR, MXL, CRDO, MTSI
Semicap test and inspection names fell with networking: Aehr Test Systems closed 7.6% lower and Onto Innovation 7.1% lower.
The weakness reached equipment suppliers tied to chip production and testing, not only optical names. ASML reports on 2026-10-14 and TSMC on 2026-10-15, so the next read on chip demand and capex is close.
Nvidia's Vera CPU has started shipping, and the company opened its Vera Rubin rack and tray designs to the Open Compute Project.
Vera pushes Nvidia into the CPU market, which incumbents dominate, so it extends Nvidia's reach beyond accelerators. Opening the rack and tray designs to OCP could make it easier for others to build around Nvidia's platform, and the pack marks it as mixed.
Forgent Power Solutions fell 7.3%, the only data center infrastructure name among the big decliners.
Data center infrastructure was otherwise not among the largest moves, so the drop looks confined to this stock rather than the group. The pack gives no cause.
Data-centre infrastructure· FPS
Nebius signed a letter of intent with Volt for data center capacity in Rotterdam.
It is a non-binding step, but it shows a neocloud lining up capacity in Europe. Neoclouds remain the weakest group in the pack's sector strength readings, though that group was unchanged on the week.
Intel plans to phase out SGX after Xeon Diamond Rapids in favor of TDX, and a Microsoft AI hardware architecture director is joining OpenAI.
Both are smaller stories. Intel is shifting its confidential computing technology to TDX on its server roadmap. The Microsoft move is a talent flow toward OpenAI's hardware effort, with no financial impact stated.
Sector strength weakened across compute, semicap, memory and networking this week, while power strengthened and servers held firm.
Memory slipped most sharply, with Rambus the stock that weakened. Networking and semicap also lost ground, matching the price moves. Servers, hyperscalers, data center infrastructure and neoclouds were unchanged on the week.
Compute · Semiconductor equipment · Memory · Networking · Servers · Data-centre infrastructure · Power · Hyperscalers · Neoclouds· RMBS, CAMT, AAOI
Published 13/10/2026, 08:01 UTC · claude-sonnet-5-5