CNBC Daily Open: Alphabet to omega in AI? (www.cnbc.com)

Alphabet’s surprise market-moving moment came Monday after it touted improvements to its Gemini AI model and continued deployment of custom TPU chips, sending GOOGL up 6.3% and sparking a Nasdaq rally (Nasdaq +2.69%). Hardware partners and suppliers rallied too—Broadcom jumped 11.1% because it helps design and manufacture Alphabet’s custom AI silicon, while Micron and AMD also rose—reviving an AI sector trade that had cooled the prior week. The market reaction underscores how advances in large-model performance can quickly amplify demand for specialized accelerators and benefit firms tied into a cloud + silicon stack. For the AI/ML community the move highlights two technical and strategic themes: first, model-hardware co-design matters—better models (Gemini 3) plus custom TPUs can create defensible performance and cost advantages; second, concentration risk and supply-chain effects grow as one vertically integrated player scales. Investors warn that if Alphabet “wins” the AI wave it could create volatility and uneven winners across chipmakers, similar to Nvidia’s recent dominance. Broader market notes: BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF saw $2.2B outflows this month, and Sandisk will join the S&P 500 on Nov. 28—context showing capital flows are rapidly reallocating around AI narratives and hardware exposure.