Tech Fuels Stock Rebound, Barron’s Daily Reports

Artificial intelligence hasn’t taken over the world—but it’s taken charge of the stock market again.

The Nasdaq Composite has climbed 13% in the past month. I Photo: Luca Marfè at Italia all'ONU Wikimedia Commons

This time, the AI rally looks different from the red-hot surge of 2023–2024.

The Nasdaq Composite has climbed 13% in the past month, led by AI stalwarts like Palantir and power providers like Vistra, which are expected to help fuel the technology, Adam Clark reported for Barron’s Daily.

Unlike the previous boom, the policy backdrop has shifted. The Biden administration’s plan for tightly regulated, subsidized AI is being replaced with President Donald Trump’s strategy of aggressively promoting U.S. tech exports.

That spells trouble for companies like Intel, which had been counting on federal grants to scale domestic production, but it’s a boon for Nvidia and others now free to chase overseas markets.

The change became official Tuesday when the Commerce Department rescinded the Biden-era “AI diffusion” rules, which would have restricted global chip sales. While this is good news for chipmakers seeking new customers, the broader AI investment cycle may be peaking.

Google stock slumped after Apple said AI was eroding traditional search.

Amazon, meanwhile, has had to defend its AI strategy amid slowing growth in its cloud division. With data center expansion nearing physical limits, the next phase of AI’s market impact may be more selective—and more volatile.