{"text":[[{"start":11.1,"text":"Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares soared 37 per cent after the supplier of data centre equipment boosted its 2026 revenue outlook amid booming demand for AI infrastructure."}],[{"start":22.65,"text":"The group said on Monday that it expected its sales to jump 29 per cent to 33 per cent in its 2026 financial year, up from the 17 per cent to 22 per cent range it predicted only in March. HPE said it was now on track to meet its long-term financial targets for 2028 two years ahead of schedule."}],[{"start":43.849999999999994,"text":"The upbeat outlook sent HPE’s shares rising to $64.64, a record high, in post-market trading on Monday. The stock had by the day’s close already climbed 96 per cent in 2026."}],[{"start":57.949999999999996,"text":"The rally is the latest sign of the tech frenzy sweeping Wall Street as rampant demand for AI tools sparks a wave of investment in data centres and other infrastructure required to train and run the software. "}],[{"start":71.05,"text":"“Customers continue to invest in modernising their infrastructure and scaling AI,” said Antonio Neri, HPE’s chief executive. "}],[{"start":78.95,"text":"The blistering rise in HPE’s shares followed blockbuster results from Dell last week, which reported strong sales of its AI-focused servers. "}],[{"start":88.25,"text":"Four Big Tech companies alone — Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft — are on track to spend more than $725bn on AI infrastructure this year."}],[{"start":98.8,"text":"HPE said on Monday that its sales rose 40 per cent in the quarter to April 30 to $10.7bn, exceeding Wall Street forecasts of $9.8bn, according to Visible Alpha. It said it expects revenue of $11.5bn-$12.1bn in the current quarter, also better than the $10.9bn forecast by analysts. "}],[{"start":122,"text":"Net income swung to $595mn in the April quarter from a loss of $1.1bn in the same period in the year prior."}],[{"start":130.55,"text":"Revenue from HPE’s networking division, which connects servers that run and train AI models, jumped 148 per cent to $2.7bn in the April quarter. "}],[{"start":141.4,"text":"“Orders more than doubled, significantly outpacing revenue, resulting in a record company backlog . . . customer investments in agentic AI and AI inference are accelerating,” Neri said. "}],[{"start":153.4,"text":"He cited the fast integration of Juniper Networks, the networking business HPE acquired last year for $14bn, as one reason for the strong results."}],[{"start":164.9,"text":"HPE’s server revenue, which includes equipment that packages leading AI data centre chips such as Nvidia’s Blackwell into servers, was $5.5bn, up 32.7 per cent."}],[{"start":178,"text":"AI hype has powered US equity markets to a series of record highs over the past two months, with a handful of semiconductor and memory stocks driving the vast majority of the gains."}],[{"start":188.5,"text":"The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks 30 chip and chipmaking equipment companies, is up 83 per cent this year. "}],[{"start":196.3,"text":"Dell and Intel have climbed about 270 per cent and 196 per cent respectively over the same period, while memory companies Sandisk and Western Digital have added 642 per cent and 217 per cent."}],[{"start":211.75,"text":"Software stocks — which came under pressure earlier this year amid fears that AI would upend the industry — were among the best performers on Monday, with Datadog up 12 per cent, Oracle adding 9.9 per cent and Salesforce advancing 9.7 per cent. "}],[{"start":235.70000000000002,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780364614_5771.mp3"}