The stock market may have registered losses on Friday, but remained firmer on a week-on-week basis, with the bellwether indices continuing to track further developments from the growing trade tensions globally.
On a weekly basis, the Dow Jones was up 0.5 percent, the S&P 500 grew 1.47 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 2.57 percent.
Meanwhile, ten companies mirrored broader market optimism, booking as much as double-digit gains in just the last five trading days. In this article, we have identified 10 of last week’s top performers and detailed the reasons behind their performances.
To come up with the list, we considered only the stocks with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.
A person holding a cup of coffee while reading stock market data on the phone. Photo by Anna Nekrashevich on Pexels
10. DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ:DKNG)
Shares of DraftKings surged by 26.5 percent week-on-week, ending Friday’s trading at $53.49 apiece versus the $42.28 reported a week earlier as investors took heart from the company’s bullish outlook for the year, with the company raising its low-end revenue guidance.
In its latest earnings release, DKNG said it now expects revenues for fiscal year 2025 to settle anywhere between $6.3 billion and $6.6 billion, as compared with the $6.2 billion to $6.6 billion targeted previously.
The new range would represent a 35-percent growth from actual revenues posted in 2024.
In the fourth quarter of the year, DKNG widened its net loss by 200 percent to $134 million from $44.6 million registered in the same period last year, as revenues dropped by 13 percent to $1.39 billion from $1.23 billion.
Despite the decline, net losses in full year 2024 narrowed by 36.8 percent to $507 million from $802 million in 2023, as revenues grew 30 percent to $4.77 billion from $3.66 billion year-on-year.
9. VNET Group Inc. (NASDAQ:VNET)
VNET Group saw its share prices jump by 28 percent last week, touching a new all-time high, as investors bought up on hopes that it would be one of the Chinese data companies to benefit from the booming artificial intelligence industry in China.
Since the emergence of DeepSeek, VNET shares, alongside its Chinese peers listed on the US stock exchange, have been earning a boost from advancements in the AI platform, particularly as the latter announced that it was able to train its models using cheap models.
Last year, VNET signaled plans to invest heavily in AI in a bid to enhance its service offerings to streamline operations and improve customer experience, among others.
In its last earnings call, VNET Group said it would earmark higher capital spending this year to support the robust demand for its wholesale services. It underscored that it would work closely with its strategic suppliers and maximize the synergies in order to ensure that its capital spending would grow at a steady pace.
8. Tempus AI Inc. (NASDAQ:TEM)
Tempus AI grew its share prices by 29.7 percent week-on-week to end Friday’s trading at $89.44 apiece versus the $68.96 on February 7, as investors gobbled up shares in the company after sealing a deal with the nonprofit organization Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation (IFLI).
In a statement, TEM said the partnership aims to develop targeted therapies for the disease through developing a real-world multimodal, de-identified FL data library in its data analytics platform, through which researchers may derive AI-driven insights to accelerate the development of FL treatments in an effort to improve patient outcomes.
TEM said the two parties will focus on prospectively generating multimodal FL data, particularly for POD24 patients who experience disease progression within 24 months of treatment.
Data from the National Cancer Institute as of 2024 showed that FL is most frequently diagnosed among people aged 65 to 74 and that the survival rate is currently at 89.9 percent.
7. Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI)
Super Micro saw its share price for the week increase by 32 percent to $47.91 last Friday from the $36.28 closing a week earlier, as investor sentiment was buoyed by its optimistic long-term business outlook.
Last week, the company said it expects to have achieved revenues for the second quarter of fiscal year 2025 to register between $5.6 billion and $5.7 billion, or a 54-percent increase year-on-year.
Diluted net income per share was pegged between 50 cents to 52 cents, or flat from the same period year-on-year.
Meanwhile, SMCI said it expects to book revenues of $40 billion for fiscal year 2026, way higher by $10 billion than the analyst consensus, with growth expected to be driven by the integration of DLC technology, which is seen to be adopted by around 30 percent of new data centers over the next 12 months.
6. AppLovin Corp. (NASDAQ:APP)
AppLovin saw its share prices jump by 35.77 percent week-on-week to end Friday’s trading at $510.13 apiece following an impressive earnings performance released last week.
In a statement, APP said net income last quarter expanded by 248 percent to $599 million from the $172 million registered in the same period a year earlier, as revenues grew 44 percent to $1.37 billion from $953 million year-on-year.
In full year 2024, net income soared 343 percent to $1.58 billion from $356 million year-on-year.
APP also expects revenues for the first quarter of the year to remain within the $1-billion level, and settle anywhere between $1.355 billion to $1.385 billion.
Analysts expect the company’s stock price to retreat in the next couple of days as investors book profits from the recent surge.
5. Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:RXRX)
Shares of Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. soared 40 percent week-on-week, with the company also experiencing a six-day winning streak as of Friday to close at $10.53 as investor optimism was fueled by Nvidia Corp.’s (NVDA) holdings in the company while disposing of shares in other firms.
NVDA submitted a regulatory filing on Friday showing ownership reduction and increases in various stocks. Notably, NVDA retained its 7.7-million holdings in RXRX, while exiting firms, including SoundHound AI.
The news represented a vote of confidence not just for NVDA but among small investors.
In other news, RXRX is also expected to release its earnings performance for 2024 within the next few weeks.
RXRX is a clinical-stage biotechnology company leading the space by decoding biology to industrialize drug discovery.
4. Aurora Innovation Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR)
Aurora Innovation grew its share prices by a whopping 41.5 percent week-on-week, finishing Friday’s trading at $10.19 apiece versus the $7.2 price registered a week earlier.
The surge came as investors gobbled up shares in the company amid optimism over its upcoming launch of driverless trucks.
AUR earlier announced that it would officially deploy its first driverless trucks on public roads this year, “ushering in a future of safer, more efficient freight transportation and immense value creation.”
“We are on the cusp of our planned Commercial Launch, a pivotal step toward realizing our mission to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly,” said AUR CEO and co-founder Chris Urmson.
3. Hims & Hers Health Inc. (NYSE:HIMS)
Shares of Hims & Hers jumped by 42 percent last week, ending Friday’s trading at $60.47 each versus the $42.55 a week earlier after the company saw a 650-percent spike in its website traffic, thanks to its recent Super Bowl advertisement called “Sick of the System.”
According to FOX Sports, the HIMS ad which was aired in the third quarter of Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX game, was so far the most-watched advertisement with 127.7 million views.
The ad featured a montage of junk food, and abdominal fat, as well as statistics about the health risks of obesity and big pharmaceutical firms’ hefty prices. HIMS’ ad then promoted its weight loss products, including compounded GLP-1 medications, as alternatives to the pricey Ozempic and Wegovy brands.
“Junk food giants, diet industry’s quick fixes, Big Pharma’s price-gouging, and regulations that favor special interests have created a system that leaves us with limited options, skyrocketing costs, and a cycle of failure,” HIMS said in its ad.
2. GDS Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:GDS)
GDS Holdings surged by 43.4 percent last week to close at $39.14 apiece on Friday versus the $27.28 apiece a week earlier as investors took heart from news that it was mulling over publicly listing its international subsidiary DayOne on the US stock exchange.
Citing unnamed sources privy to the matter, Bloomberg reported that GDS could potentially list DayOne in a bid to raise $500 million on the stock market.
The company was said to be targeting the IPO as early as this year, and that it is already in discussions with underwriters for the issuance.
GDS was able to raise $1.2 billion for DayOne in December last year from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund and Citadel Chief Executive Officer Ken Griffin.
GDS is a Chinese data center company that operates in China and Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, DayOne holds GDS’s data center and operates outside of mainland China.
1. WeRide Inc. (NASDAQ:WRD)
Shares of WeRide nearly doubled its share prices last week, ending higher by 97.6 percent at $31.5 apiece versus the $15.94 apiece as investors gobbled up shares following giant chipmaker Nvidia Corp.’s (NVDA) purchase of 1.7 million shares in the company.
At intra-day trading on Friday, WRD stock price soared as high as 146 percent to $42.24 apiece before early profit-taking pulled the company’s valuation lower towards the end of the trading session.
NVDA released its stake positions in several companies on the same day, which saw its 44-percent ownership reduction in British chipmaker Arm Holdings, while also exiting Serve Robotics and SoundHound AI.
Meanwhile, WRD uses NVDA’s advanced graphic processors and AI software to power its vehicles, pushing its market capitalization to $4.71 billion as of the market close.
According to an analyst from Triple D Trading, “There is no greater vote of confidence than Nvidia taking a stake in your company.”
While we acknowledge the potential of WRD as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than WRD but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap.
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