Wednesday, October 21, 2026

At Tuesday's close the benchmarks diverged — SPY gained 0.34% to $769.05 while QQQ slipped 0.10% to $717.63. The 524 AI infrastructure stocks we track finished modestly higher on average at +0.14%, with 282 advancing and 234 declining, a touch behind SPY; Software & Design led at +1.31% and Utilities & Energy added 0.80%, while Natural Resources lagged at -1.18% and Power Systems fell 0.54%. VICR (Vicor Corporation) was the standout at +7.1% after reporting third-quarter results in the prior session, and ATCX (Atlas Critical Minerals) was the biggest decliner at -8.4%. Today's earnings slate is heavy, with LRCX (Lam Research), META (Meta Platforms), TXN (Texas Instruments), TSLA (Tesla) and NEE (NextEra Energy) all on the calendar, and WDC (Western Digital), BE (Bloom Energy) and FIX (Comfort Systems) due Thursday.

VICR reported third-quarter diluted EPS of $1.33 versus $1.32 expected. The stock gained 7.1% in Tuesday's session, the largest advance in our universe. Vicor builds high-density power modules and current-multiplier converters used in high-current processor power delivery.

VMI (Valmont Industries) reported third-quarter EPS of $6.24 against $5.70 expected and raised its full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance. Management cited higher sales in North America Utility and Coatings as reinforcing confidence in the outlook. Valmont's utility business manufactures steel poles, substation structures and transmission hardware.

MLI (Mueller Industries) reported diluted EPS of $1.00 against $1.08 expected, with net sales of $1.42 billion versus $1.08 billion a year earlier. Net income rose to $221.2 million from $208.1 million and operating income to $281.6 million from $276.1 million; the quarterly dividend rose to $0.175 from $0.125. Shares fell 6.6% in Tuesday's session.

MMM (3M Company) reported adjusted EPS of $2.50 against $2.38 expected on sales of $6.6 billion, up 1.0% with organic growth of 3.3%, and adjusted operating margin of 26.2%, up 110 basis points. The company raised 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $9.10–$9.15. Shares gained 5.8% in Tuesday's session.

TDY (Teledyne Technologies) reported this morning: record quarterly net sales of $1.6849 billion, up 9.4% year over year, GAAP diluted EPS of $5.82, up 25.2%, and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $6.72, up 20.6%, against a $6.17 consensus.

NVIDIA expands capacity agreements, adds manufacturing facilities. NVDA (NVIDIA Corporation) said new capacity agreements and manufacturing facilities will support volume growth and strengthen supply chain resiliency across its buildout. The announcement frames the additions as both a volume and a resiliency measure. NVIDIA's supply chain spans advanced packaging, memory, power delivery and system assembly, each of which has been a discrete capacity constraint during the AI buildout.

NVIDIA introduces DSX POD AI factories for Europe. NVIDIA announced DSX POD AI factories, factory-built with a global ecosystem that includes DELL (Dell Technologies), HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) and VRT (Vertiv Holdings Co), alongside Bull, Lenovo and Schneider Electric. The reference design is intended to speed infrastructure deployment from months to weeks, accelerating time to first production tokens. The design shifts assembly and integration work from the site to the factory.

IREN secures civil works license for 300MW Spain AI campus. IREN (IREN Limited) said at NVIDIA GTC Berlin that it has established IREN Europe and secured the civil works license for a planned AI data center in Badajoz, Extremadura. The project is planned to deliver approximately 300MW of capacity, with initial operations targeted for 2028. It is a sovereign-capacity commitment in a European market where grid and permitting are the pacing items.

Micron invests in New York critical minerals processing with Indium. MU (Micron Technology) announced an investment in New York critical minerals processing alongside Indium Corporation, the latest step under its up-to $3 billion U.S. supply-chain plan. The company said the move strengthens the domestic semiconductor ecosystem and expands access to critical materials for advanced memory manufacturing. Memory has been among the tightest links in the AI compute chain.

Vertiv targets 30% more token output with NVIDIA DSX design. VRT and NVIDIA introduced an AI factory approach pairing pre-engineered reference architectures with factory-built deployment. Under defined assumptions, the companies say it can generate up to 30% more cumulative token output in the first 12 months on the same installed capacity, with configuration and validation up to 10x faster and deployment up to 50% faster. Polar Data Centers is applying the approach to the first 41MW phase of its multiphase AI data center at Herøya, Norway. Vertiv is also contributing SimReady assets of its power and cooling equipment to an open library.

Amkor's NVIDIA agreements total $3 billion across Arizona, Korea. AMKR (Amkor Technology) announced additional investments in South Korea for capacity expansion initiatives with NVIDIA, bringing its multi-year agreements with the company in Arizona and South Korea to $3 billion. The initiatives support demand for next-generation AI and accelerated computing platforms. Amkor is an outsourced packaging and test provider, a step in the chain that has absorbed growing volume as chip architectures move to advanced packaging.

SCHMID wins €25 million-plus HDI equipment order in Malaysia. SHMD (SCHMID Group) reached agreement with a key customer and long-standing technology partner on an equipment order valued at more than €25 million to support expansion of advanced high-density interconnect manufacturing capacity in Malaysia. The same day, the company issued a third-quarter business update and raised its order intake guidance. HDI capacity supports denser, higher-layer boards used in compute and networking hardware.

LRCX reports today with consensus EPS of $2.18 — a read on etch and deposition bookings tied to memory and advanced packaging capacity, the same lines Amkor is expanding. META reports with $6.54 consensus, where capital expenditure commentary is the relevant piece for compute and data center demand. TXN at $2.43 offers an analog and power semiconductor read. TSLA reports at $0.4488 consensus, an automotive and energy storage read.

NEE posted its third-quarter 2026 results this morning; consensus stood at $1.20 and the release is available on the company's website. Also on today's slate are ESI at $0.4789, KMI (Kinder Morgan) at $0.3205 and URI (United Rentals) at $13.97.

Thursday brings WDC at $4.09 consensus, where nearline drive shipments are a direct proxy for AI storage demand. BE at $0.691 covers fuel-cell power for data centers, and FIX at $12.85 speaks to mechanical and data center construction backlog.

Also Thursday, NOK (Nokia) at $0.08 and TTMI (TTM Technologies) at $1.25 provide networking and PCB demand reads, PCG (PG&E) at $0.4211 speaks to utility capex, CBRE (CBRE Group) at $1.97 and BX (Blackstone) at $1.26 cover data center real assets, and UNP (Union Pacific) at $3.47 consensus is a read on rail and intermodal freight volumes.