Shares of technology companies soared amid optimism about the prospects for artificial-intelligence technology after chip maker Nvidia's results late Wednesday.

Nvidia shares climbed to a fresh record on Thursday. The chip giant forecast current-quarter sales of about $11 billion, up 64% from a year earlier and higher than the $7.2 billion that Wall Street analysts were expecting.

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices, Applied Materials and Synopsys were also up sharply.

The optimism over semiconductors bodes well for the wider tech sector, according to Mark Newton, head of technical strategy at Fundstrat.

"Semis in relative terms to broader technology, have the potential to break back out to new all-time highs this week on a ratio basis. That would be important and positive for this leading sector to show such strength," he said.

Meanwhile, Microsoft President Brad Smith backed calls for the U.S. government to create a new agency to license major artificial-intelligence systems, amid growing support for regulation of an industry that is moving aggressively to commercialize powerful new tools such as ChatGPT.

Splunk posted better-than-expected results for its fiscal first quarter, including a surprise non-GAAP profit, as the cyber security and data analytics software company saw a payoff from a new focus on controlling costs.

Shares of Snowflake sank more than 15% after the data-software company topped expectations with its latest results but cut its outlook for the full year.


Write to Amy Pessetto at amy.pessetto@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-25-23 1711ET