Five AI chipmakers were up a median 6.81% at about 1:00 p.m. ET on 11 November, about 4.5 times the S&P 500’s 1.53% gain at the same time, by our arithmetic from Nasdaq.com and Yahoo Finance quotes. Microsoft was down 2.23% and Amazon down 1.72%.
Reuters reported that the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq climbed more than 1% after CoreWeave’s earnings eased investor concerns about AI spending. The median move of the four biggest cloud spenders, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta, was a 0.79% fall, by our arithmetic. These are intraday moves, not closing prices.
Business Pill · Capex and Depreciation Explained
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on capital spending and depreciation, the accounting behind what cloud spenders pay chipmakers. It teaches the concept only and does not discuss today’s trading.
The key insight: As we read it, the midday tape split the AI trade by side of the invoice: the five chipmakers rose a median 6.81%, while the median of the four biggest cloud spenders fell 0.79%, by our arithmetic.
Per Reuters, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose after “neocloud firm CoreWeave’s solid earnings eased investor concerns about bloated AI expenditure”. CoreWeave’s shares jumped 25.3% after the company said it would become profitable in the first half of 2028 on an adjusted basis.
Reuters said the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index jumped 7%, with Marvell Technology and Micron up 12.2% and 13.3%. Nvidia rose 3.8% after shedding about $430 billion in the previous two sessions, Reuters said.
At 11:44 a.m. ET, Reuters put the S&P 500 up 1.25% at 7,614.73 and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.85% at 25,529.87. It also reported that traders now fully price in a Federal Reserve rate rise next month, per the CME FedWatch tool, and that the US bond market is shut for Veterans Day.
Share-price change at about 1:00 p.m. ET on 11 November 2026 for five AI chipmakers (Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD, Micron and TSMC’s US-listed shares) and the four biggest cloud spenders (Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta), from Nasdaq.com quotes; the dashed line is the S&P 500’s 1.53% gain at 1:01 p.m. ET per Yahoo Finance. Intraday moves, not closing prices; groupings are ours.
The Split at Midday
Nasdaq.com quotes at about 1:00 p.m. ET had Micron up 13.39%, AMD up 8.64%, Broadcom up 6.81%, TSMC’s US-listed shares up 4.87% and Nvidia up 4.48%.
Among the four biggest cloud spenders, Alphabet was up 2.39% and Meta up 0.14%, while Microsoft fell 2.23% and Amazon 1.72%. The Nasdaq-100 was up 2.88% at 12:58 p.m. ET per Nasdaq.com, and the S&P 500 was up 1.53% at 1:01 p.m. ET per Yahoo Finance.
Group medians against the indexes at midday on 11 November 2026: five AI chipmakers +6.81%, the Nasdaq-100 +2.88% (Nasdaq.com, 12:58 p.m. ET), the S&P 500 +1.53% (Yahoo Finance, 1:01 p.m. ET) and the four biggest cloud spenders -0.79%. Medians are our arithmetic; intraday, not closing prices.
Our Numbers
The five chipmakers’ median gain of 6.81% is about 4.5 times the S&P 500’s 1.53%, by our arithmetic. The four cloud spenders’ median of minus 0.79% puts the gap between the two groups at 7.6 percentage points.
The groupings are ours: Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD, Micron and TSMC as the chipmakers, and Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta as the largest cloud spenders. All figures come from one set of quotes taken at 18:01 UTC.
The Structural Read
As we read the quotes, the gain was concentrated in suppliers: Micron and AMD rose more than the semiconductor index’s 7% move that Reuters reported, while Microsoft and Amazon were lower.
As we read the Reuters account, the catalyst named was CoreWeave’s results, a cloud provider that buys the chips; the report does not tie the move to any of the four biggest cloud spenders.
Reuters, 11 November 2026
“The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index jumped 7% to a one-week high, with Marvell Technology and Micron up 12.2% and 13.3%, respectively.”
Three Implications
FOR CHIPMAKERS Nasdaq.com quotes at about 1:00 p.m. ET had Micron up 13.39% and AMD up 8.64%, both above the median of the five.
FOR THE CLOUD SPENDERSMicrosoft was down 2.23% and Amazon down 1.72% at the same time, while Alphabet was up 2.39%.
FOR RATES Reuters reported that traders now fully price in a Federal Reserve rate rise next month, per the CME FedWatch tool.
The framework says of the current spending wave: “This is a different cycle, with different physics.”
As we read it, today’s midday split shows the two sides of that cycle trading apart: the companies paid by AI capex rose, while two of the four biggest payers fell. The framework predates today’s trading and does not discuss it.
What Is Not Established
The Reuters report we read does not explain the falls in Microsoft and Amazon, and we do not attribute them to any cause. These are intraday moves and can change before the close.
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On the day Reuters tied the rally to CoreWeave’s results, the five AI chipmakers rose a median of about 4.5 times the S&P 500 by midday, while Microsoft and Amazon, two of the four biggest cloud spenders, traded lower, by our arithmetic from the quotes.
A note on sourcing. We read the Reuters market report of 11 November 2026 in full, as syndicated by Central Oregon Daily. Share-price and Nasdaq index moves come from Nasdaq.com quotes at about 1:00 p.m. ET and the S&P 500 move from Yahoo Finance at 1:01 p.m. ET, all taken in one snapshot at 18:01 UTC; they are intraday and delayed, not closing prices. Medians, ratios and the groupings are ours. We did not contact the companies for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
