As part of the latest quarterly market value weight changes in the S&P 500 index, which can be described as the global AI boom winner, $Palantir (PLTR.US)$ and $Dell Technologies (DELL.US)$ will join this benchmark index, and the leader of the US insurance industry $Erie Indemnity (ERIE.US)$ will also join this index.

According to a news release from the S&P Dow Jones Indices last Friday, these companies will replace $American Airlines (AAL.US)$ , $Etsy Inc (ETSY.US)$ and $Bio-Rad Laboratories (BIO.US)$ . These specific changes will take effect before the start of trading on September 23rd.

Since 2023, the stock prices have been continuously soaring. Palantir and Dell, known as the 'AI bull stocks,' joining the most widely watched benchmark index in the global stock market reflects the reshaping of the financial market by technology companies, especially those related to artificial intelligence.

Palantir, a big data analytics software company co-founded by billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, has expanded from exclusively providing technology services to the US intelligence community to comprehensive cooperation with dozens of government agencies. Recently, it has significantly expanded its business operations deeply integrated with generative AI.

This technology company based in Denver has seen its stock price skyrocket by over 75% this year, as investors believe that the company, which specializes in big data software and monitoring, will greatly benefit from the growing demand for its generative AI tools worldwide. In 2023, Palantir's stock price has even reached an astonishing 165% increase for the full year, and in after-hours trading on Friday, the stock price surged by as much as 7.86%, stimulated by the news that it will soon be included in the S&P 500 index.

Palantir's recent performance revealed that, under its vigorous promotion of the 'Palantir AI Platform' developed based on a brand-new generative AI technology, the company has continued to expand the scale of its business and government operations. Its total revenue in the second quarter grew by a significant 27% year-on-year to reach $0.678 billion, surpassing the Wall Street analysts' expectations of $0.6528 billion. Its second-quarter net income unexpectedly increased by 20% to $0.134 billion, while analysts had previously expected a net income of only $82.8 million. Palantir's second-quarter adjusted EBITDA soared to a high of $0.262 billion, an increase of 39% year-on-year.

Palantir Technologies' stock price can rise by more than 160% from the global corporate layout AI frenzy, mainly due to its deep accumulation in AI technology and product development, as well as the extensive application of its AI software products in commercial and government sectors. Palantir can provide AI-based data analysis and processing platforms for various industries, enabling them to effectively manage and analyze massive amounts of data with the help of AI, thereby optimizing decision-making processes and improving operational efficiency.

Palantir's launch of the Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) in 2023 has received widespread attention and has been used by more than 100 organizations worldwide, including the medical care and automobile industries. The company is also in talks with more than 300 additional companies. The core selling point of the AIP platform is not that Palantir is developing large language models (LLMs) itself, but rather that it focuses more on AI applications. The platform also includes AI assistants similar to ChatGPT, which can help enterprises analyze and make decisions on their big data businesses, and help customers efficiently call the modules and functions of Palantir's various platforms with low technical thresholds.

The AIP platform is fully integrated with Palantir's existing software ecosystem, enabling organizations to effectively apply generative artificial intelligence to their data analytics, enhancing insights and operational efficiency. This platform supports a range of AI-driven applications, from automated management of material shortages, logistics, and supply chain optimization to predictive maintenance and threat detection.

Dell, headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, is globally known for its personal computers and monitor devices. The company's performance report last week showed better-than-expected revenue due to a significant increase in sales of high-performance AI servers built for handling AI workloads. The data shows that Dell's second-quarter revenue grew by 9%, reaching $25 billion, surpassing the market's expected $24.5 billion. The EPS, excluding certain items, was $1.89, also higher than the market's expected $1.71.

The stock price of this hardware-focused technology company rose more than 7% after Friday's closing, with a year-to-date increase of 35% and a full-year increase of 95% in 2023. Dell is committed to providing servers optimized for AI workloads, which not only have Dell's industry-leading high-performance computing capability and efficient resource integration system but also feature the latest AI GPU from NVIDIA to accelerate AI training and inference processes. Dell and Super Micro Computer have large customers concentrated in ChatGPT, Sora developer OpenAI, and many AI startup companies, including Elon Musk's xAI, as well as Oracle and Amazon AWS and other cloud service giants.

Dell and Super Micro Computer (SMCI.US) have recently been increasing their production capacity to manufacture AI servers equipped with the NVIDIA H100 and updated versions such as the H200/GB200, in order to win a larger scale of business from companies building and using AI applications. Many generative AI applications, such as ChatGPT and Sora's text-to-video large models, require immense data processing power and expanded hardware computing resources.

Through years of close cooperation with Nvidia, Dell and Super Micro Computer use the latest Nvidia GPUs and integrate a complete CUDA acceleration toolkit to provide powerful GPU acceleration capabilities for the indispensable technical link of AI training/inference workloads for global enterprises, ensuring the best integration and performance optimization of hardware and software. Their deep partnership with Nvidia ensures the highest priority of hardware and software integration and performance optimization.

Due to the upcoming inclusion in the S&P index, the stock price of US insurance company Erie Indemnity saw a significant after-hours increase of 5.5%.

According to the August index balancing method, a company must have a market capitalization of at least $18 billion and meet the profit criteria, liquidity, and market capitalization standards of the S&P 500 index to qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500 index.

At the same time, American Airlines was removed from the S&P 500 index, highlighting the challenges faced by the industry recently, including the delay in Boeing aircraft deliveries and rising labor costs. Due to overly optimistic expectations for domestic demand, the airline significantly lowered its profit forecast in July.

In general, the S&P 500 index is the most attractive global stock market index for global funds. Being included in this stock benchmark index can significantly increase a company's visibility. As the popularity of passive investment funds tracking the S&P 500 index continues to rise, it creates strong positive catalysts for the market capitalization and stock prices of S&P 500 index constituents. Being removed from this benchmark index may create short-term pressure on stock prices as passive investment funds sell stocks to align with the new composition of the S&P 500 index.

Editor/Emily