CES 2025: Semiconductor Stocks In The Spotlight

TradingKey - Every year in the US, there are multiple events that showcase the latest and best tech that large companies have to offer.

It gives both individuals and companies an opportunity to assess which firms are leading the charge in terms of innovation. One of the first big events of 2025 is the CES 2025 trade show taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada from 7-10 January.

With the markets in the US being driven by excitement surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the past couple of years, it’s understandable that semiconductor companies are taking the spotlight at the CES 2025.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what investors need to know about CES 2025 and what chip companies are revealing at the conference amid the ongoing AI boom.

Cutting-edge chips on the menu for investors

One of the biggest early announcements at CES 2025 was from wireless semis specialist Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ: QCOM). The company revealed its latest chips that are designed to power PCs capable of running the latest AI software but costs as little as US$600.

This is seen as the “next frontier” in AI as PCs haven’t caught up in terms of AI capabilities. That gives semis firms that specialise in PC chips a huge market opportunity. Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon X platform, that includes an 8-core Oryon central processor, a graphics component and dedicated AI chip.

The AI chip will run Copilot+’s software from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), according to Qualcomm. Furthermore, big PC makers like Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE: DELL) and Lenovo Group Ltd (HKEX: 992) will begin offering laptops based on the new product in early 2025. One of the key advantages of the new chip, according to Qualcomm, is power efficiency with extended battery life for machines using them.

Despite that, Qualcomm isn’t actually a serious competitor to the two big incumbents in the PC chips space – Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ: AMD), otherwise known as AMD.

Broader tech optimism and Nvidia’s release

A look at the CES 2025 wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the chip behemoth that is Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA). Indeed, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave the keynote address at CES 2025 on Monday evening (6 January) in Las Vegas.

On Monday, tech stocks in the US had a broadly positive day in anticipation of CES 2025 and the potential for various unveilings. Chip stocks, particularly, had a positive day and Nvidia wasn’t going to be left out as its shares hit a record high and finished the day up 3.4% at around US$149.

While Nvidia stock actually fell in December, so far in 2025 they are up close to 10%. There was some more positive news on Monday when CEO Huang revealed Nvidia’s next-generation gaming graphics cards. He also stated that the upcoming RTX 5090 card – along with three other models – would use Blackwell architecture chips.

In essence, the age of AI is here gamers, according to Huang. Nvidia said that the new chip would retail for US$1,999 and it will outperform the prior generation’s chip (RTX 4090) by up to two times when leveraging the company’s fourth-generation Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology. 

Among other notable announcements from Huang was Nvidia unveiling an AI desktop computer named “Project DIGITS”. He went on to say that “placing an AI supercomputer on the desks of every data scientist, AI researcher and student empowers them to engage and shape the age of AI”.

What does it mean for investors?

There were all-round positive moves for tech stocks on Monday and the next few days could well see more increased trading around specific semiconductor names after the latest unveils and also amid the ongoing CES 2025 in Las Vegas.

For investors, it appears like the AI revolution is still in the early stages and chip firms are well placed to continue to benefit from the demand for computing power and data processing requirements from other Big Tech firms.