OpenAI Weighs $1.2T Funding Round; BofA Defends Chips After AI Sell-Off

Analysis

The AI funding cycle owned today's news flow. The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI is considering a pre-IPO funding round at a valuation of more than $1.2 trillion, capping a week of mega-AI capital-raising speculation that also ran through Motley Fool's guide to getting exposure to Anthropic before its own IPO. The physical build-out kept advancing: Google (GOOG) landed a nuclear deal with Finland's Fortum, Euronews examined why European money is financing the American AI boom, and Blackstone (BX) expects an earnings boom in AI, infrastructure, and fundraising to keep growing. Meta (META) framed the debate from the inside, with Zuckerberg and Wang pushing back on calls to slow AI progress and Zuckerberg saying Meta delayed its Muse model for months to focus on AI safety, while a new Meta AI acquisition drew fresh reads on the company's priorities. Semis got a firm Wall Street endorsement. Bank of America made a bold chip call after the recent AI sell-off, with names across NVDA, AMD, Applied Materials (AMAT), Lam Research (LRCX), and Marvell (MRVL) in play alongside the SOX index, and Qualcomm (QCOM) climbed to a 2-month high on its AI data center push. SolarEdge (SEDG) got real with its 800-volt data center push, and SK Hynix (SKHY) eased labor strain by striking a deal to pay half of bonuses in cash. The bear counterpoint stayed visible: Michael Burry's seven-word dismissal of the slowdown chatter, 'There Is Nothing AI to Slow Down,' is being weighed against his open shorts in NVDA and Palantir (PLTR). Outside the AI complex, the consumer tape looks rougher. Open (OPEN), Nike (NKE), and Carnival (CCL) all crashed to 52-week lows, and Seaport flagged broad restaurant traffic weakness and valuation risk across WEN, CMG, SBUX, MCD, and CAVA, with only one name in the group standing out. Oracle (ORCL) fell for a fifth straight session as traders eye OpenAI funding news and a potential Japan cloud deal as catalysts, with new scrutiny on how much ORCL stock Larry Ellison is holding as loan collateral. IBD noted Dow Jones futures rising as ServiceNow (NOW) and Twilio (TWLO) led 8 new buys, even with the open question of how bonds will react to a Fed hike. Undervaluation hunting persisted, with Simply Wall St. seeing Home Depot (HD) as 21% undervalued on its pro-supply push and Netflix (NFLX) as 5% undervalued on live events and ads, while Abbott (ABT) agreed to a $385 million infant formula recall settlement and Accenture (ACN) to a $25 million DOJ discrimination settlement.