Nasdaq Hits Record High on Meta Muse: Which Chip Stocks Surged Double Digits

The Nasdaq Composite closed on September 22, 2026 with a gain of 2.26 percent at a new record high of 27,122.09 points. The trigger for the technology rally was the success of Meta's AI agent "Muse," which marks a paradigm shift in AI infrastructure and delivered double-digit stock gains to chip stocks with a CPU focus.

Meta Muse Dominates App Store and Drives Market Value

Meta's AI agent Muse reached the top of the US iPhone app charts less than two weeks after its debut on September 9, 2026, displacing OpenAI's ChatGPT in overall downloads. The rapid user adoption caused Meta's stock to surge more than 11 percent on September 21 and 22—the steepest daily gain since April 2025. The company thereby gained approximately 190 billion US dollars in market capitalization.

Meta simultaneously announced plans for a new undersea cable between the US and France. The announcements came immediately before Meta Connect 2026 on September 22 and 23, at which further AI announcements were expected. While Amazon restricted Muse's access to its e-commerce platform, investor sentiment remained broadly positive and weighted the download momentum higher than individual platform conflicts.

Chip Stocks Post Double-Digit Gains

The semiconductor sector benefited disproportionately from Muse enthusiasm. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 4.3 percent. CPU-focused chip designers recorded significantly stronger stock gains than GPU manufacturers:

• Intel rose 12.14 percent
• AMD gained 10 percent and reached a market capitalization exceeding one trillion US dollars for the first time in company history
• Arm Holdings gained 17 percent
• Nvidia rose 2.3 percent

The Nasdaq 100 climbed 2.15 percent and thus came within less than 300 points of the June record high of 30,762 points. The S&P 500 closed with a gain of 1.55 percent.

Paradigm Shift in AI Infrastructure

Agentic AI applications—software that performs complex tasks over extended periods and interacts with users—require not only the computing power of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for training large models, but also Central Processing Units (CPUs) for inference. This infrastructure demand differs fundamentally from previous AI workloads and is shifting investment flows in the semiconductor market.

The stock market reaction shows how quickly investors adjust their valuation of the AI value chain. While Nvidia as the dominant GPU provider continued to gain, CPU manufacturers recorded significantly stronger percentage gains. AMD's market capitalization exceeded the one trillion US dollar mark for the first time.

Rally Despite Restrictive Monetary Policy

The tech rally occurred even though the Federal Reserve reaffirmed its hawkish stance and warned of "painful" measures to combat inflation. AI sentiment proved stronger than macroeconomic concerns. Bitcoin simultaneously exceeded the 86,000 US dollar mark, reaching an eight-month high.

On Thursday, a meeting between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and China's Vice Premier He Lifeng for trade talks was expected. A preparatory meeting had already taken place.