Why Lam Research Stock Skyrocketed Past the Market on Thursday

Lam Research just schooled the entire semiconductor sector—and left Wall Street analysts scrambling to update their price targets.

The chip equipment maker's shares surged Thursday, dramatically outperforming both the Nasdaq and broader semiconductor indices. While legacy financial institutions were busy debating interest rate minutiae, Lam was quietly printing gains that'd make most hedge funds blush.

Semiconductor equipment plays aren't for the faint of heart—they're volatile, cyclical, and hypersensitive to global supply chain dynamics. Yet Lam's performance suggests something bigger brewing beneath the surface: sustained demand for advanced chipmaking tools despite macroeconomic headwinds.

Here's the real kicker—while traditional finance still treats tech stocks like speculative gambles, companies like Lam keep delivering quarter after quarter of actual results. Maybe that's why crypto natives understand tech valuations better than most fund managers; we're used to assets that actually innovate instead of just paying dividends.

Lam's Thursday rally wasn't just a blip—it was a reminder that real technological value creation eventually gets priced in. Even if the suits on Wall Street are late to the party.

A memorable day for chip companies and their suppliers

Lam Research didn't have any news of its own to report, but we sure can't say that about two of its chipmaking customers,and.

Image source: Getty Images.

That morning, Nvidia announced it is ponying up $5 billion to invest in a meaningful chunk of Intel's common stock. It's doing so, in its words, so the two high-profile tech companies can "jointly develop multiple generations of custom data center and PC products that accelerate applications and workloads across hyperscale, enterprise, and consumer markets."

This is hardly the first big-money investment finding its way into Intel recently. No less an entity than the U.S. government announced NEAR the end of August that it's taking a stake worth just under $10 billion in the company, and this was preceded shortly beforehand by a similar, $2 billion move made by.

Increased business for equipment makers

With that amount of capital gushing into Intel, the tech hardware company is sure to significantly ramp up its manufacturing efforts. This, of course, means more business for specialty manufacturing equipment companies like Lam Research. At this point, it's hard to make meaningful estimates on this effect on the company's fundamentals, but there's little doubt it'll be positive.

The bullish investor reaction to the news, then, was entirely understandable and rather justifiable.