Intel beat Q1 estimates and gave strong Q2 guidance, lifting AI chip stocks; major tech earnings arrive this week with Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta reporting April 29, and Apple on April 30.

Intel's first-quarter earnings beat and second-quarter guidance boosted the AI sector Friday. Taiwan Semiconductor jumped 5%, the iShares Semiconductor ETF gained 5%, and peers AMD and Arm Holdings rose by double digits, driven by surging CPU demand from agentic AI (AI systems that act autonomously to complete tasks).

Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Apple—the largest hyperscalers—are set to spend about $700 billion on capital expenditures this year, much of which will go to AI. Investors will focus on cloud growth, AI adoption signals (such as Copilot uptake), chip demand, and capital spending plans in their earnings reports this week.

Strong earnings reports from these five companies could extend gains in semiconductor stocks, as all are major chip customers for Nvidia, Arm, AMD, Micron, and others. Chip demand continues to outpace supply, and adoption of AI technology is spreading across industries.