Top 20 U.S. Stocks by Trading Volume: TSMC’s 2nm Process Price Reportedly Up at Least 50%
On Tuesday, the top-traded U.S. stock, Tesla, fell 1.93%, with a trading volume of $35.6 billion. Court documents revealed that a robotics technician, Peter Hinterdobler, is suing Elon Musk’s Tesla for $51 million, claiming he was attacked without warning by a malfunctioning Tesla robot. Hinterdobler, struck by an “approximately 8,000-pound (about 3,600 kg) counterweight,” has incurred $1 million in medical expenses.
The second-ranked Nvidia fell 2.82%, with a trading volume of $34.199 billion. On Monday, the chipmaker announced a $100 billion investment in OpenAI, which had initially boosted its stock and the broader market.
However, some investors are reassessing this customer-supplier deal, noting similarities to dot-com bubble transactions. There are also questions about whether these two prominent AI companies have sufficient energy resources to support their growth plans.
The third-ranked Amazon fell 3.04%, with a trading volume of $15.688 billion.
Reports indicate that the company and three executives (SVP Neil Lindsay, Russell Grandinetti, and VP Jamil Ghani) face a civil lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a Seattle court, alleging they misled users into subscribing to Prime and intentionally made cancellation difficult.
The case entered jury trial on Monday and is expected to last four weeks. If found liable, Amazon could face billions in fines and refunds.
Additionally, the company will close all its Amazon Fresh grocery stores in the UK.
The fifth-ranked Palantir rose 1.80%, with a trading volume of $11.27 billion. Reports on Tuesday indicated the company will collaborate with Boeing on AI applications in defense.
The sixth-ranked Oracle fell 4.36%, with a trading volume of $10.82 billion. Sources revealed that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle’s new co-CEO Clay Magouyrk are expected to announce an expansion of their Texas data centers on Tuesday.
Oracle Cloud operates data centers in the region, and the ChatGPT maker is expected to spend hundreds of billions over the next decade leasing servers from these facilities.
The day before this event, Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced that Nvidia will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI at an unspecified time to help the startup develop its own data centers.
The eighth-ranked Meta Platforms fell 1.28%, with a trading volume of $7.973 billion. Reports say Meta has ramped up efforts to counter AI regulations, investing “tens of millions” in a new super PAC called the “American Technology Excellence Program” to oppose state policies that could hinder AI development.
Last month, Meta also formed a California-focused PAC to support tech-friendly candidates in state elections.
The 13th-ranked AppLovin rose 1.19%, with a trading volume of $5.085 billion.
The 14th-ranked TSMC rose 3.70%, with a trading volume of $5.018 billion.
On Tuesday, reports emerged that TSMC’s 2nm process prices will rise at least 50% compared to 3nm, with the latest 3nm CPU prices already up about 20% from the prior generation. Industry sources say TSMC’s 2nm process will enter mass production this quarter, but due to high capital expenditure for advanced nodes, TSMC has no plans for discounts or price negotiations.
Supply chain estimates suggest flagship chips on the 2nm process could cost up to $280 each. Additionally, memory chip giants like Samsung and SK Hynix have raised prices, accelerating the semiconductor price surge.
Also, Micron Technology announced on Tuesday a partnership with TSMC to manufacture logic chips based on HBM4E for standard and custom products.
The 19th-ranked Intel rose 2.02%, with a trading volume of $3.734 billion. Recently, Nvidia announced a $5 billion investment in the former PC chip leader Intel to co-develop data center and personal computing products.
