CNBC Daily Open: AI-adjacent companies may be the next big play

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

U.S. markets slipped as Asian stocks rise
U.S. stocks mostly fell Wednesday. The S&P 500 lost 0.19% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite closed near the flatline. Asian markets rose Thursday, with Hong Kong, Japanese and Korean markets adding more than 2%. They were buoyed by a semiconductor rally, led by SK Hynix shares which surged around 8%.

OpenAI might be open to profit
OpenAI’s board is considering plans to restructure the firm as a for-profit business, according to a source who asked to remain anonymous. OpenAI will retain its non-profit segment as a separate entity, the source said. The news follows a slew of high-profile departures from the company, like CTO Mira Murati and research chief Bob McGrew.

Support for semiconductor plans
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to turn the country into a semiconductor powerhouse. Modi wants to grow the electronics sector from $155 billion currently to $500 billion by 2030. Experts CNBC talked to are divided over whether that target’s feasible. They are unanimous, however, on the fact that India can’t do it alone.

Turning VR into reality
Meta took another step in making virtual reality part of our everyday life. The company’s Reality Labs division announced the Quest 3S, its latest VR headset, which starts at $299 and goes on sale Oct. 15. Meta also showed off a prototype of augmented reality glasses called Orion. It hopes to sell the next version to consumers.

[PRO] Look at India’s ‘micros’
India’s economy and stock market have been booming over the past year. But it’s a mistake to invest based solely on that fact, said Blackstone Private Equity’s head of Asia. Instead, investors should focus on “certain micros” to make money.

The initial frenzy in generative artificial intelligence was triggered when OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022. Institutions poured billions into OpenAI.

While OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is not listed publicly, several companies have gained immensely from the generative AI boom that it sparked. 

Nvidia was the first beneficiary of gen AI. Its stock rocketed in 2023, a year after ChatGPT was released, when it became clear the semiconductor company’s chips were the brains behind chatbots.

Then Big Tech companies jumped on the bandwagon. Microsoft, Meta and Google-parent Alphabet released their own versions of chatbots and gen-AI-infused tools. Those features helped bump up share prices, though of course it’s difficult to attribute a single cause to stock movement.

It seems the tailwinds of AI are starting to propel a third wave of AI-adjacent companies forward.

If chips are the brains of AI, then data centers are its body. Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose more than 5% after Barclays upgraded the company on strong AI data center demand. And recall Oracle’s surge this year, driven mainly by the company’s AI cloud services powered by its data centers.

Next in line to be juiced by AI appear to be energy companies.

Oracle’s founder Larry Ellison said a new data center that the company is designing “will rely on three modular nuclear reactors.”

Vistra Corp, a power company based in Texas, jumped almost 6% on expectations the company will power an AI data center with one of its nuclear plants. Likewise, Constellation Energy popped about 22% Friday after it announced plans to restart a nuclear plant and sell the power to Microsoft.

All that is to say: The AI wave will continue rippling throughout the ocean for some time. Big Tech or semiconductors are juicy catches, but a wider net might reel in other prizes.

 – CNBC’s Kif Leswing, Jonathan Vanian, Jordan Novet, Brian Evans and Jesse Pound contributed to this story.