(Oct 21): Shares of Super Micro Computer Inc jumped after the company reported preliminary quarterly results that topped analysts’ estimates.

The server maker said sales will be US$18.5 billion (RM75.48 billion) to US$19.5 billion in the quarter that ended Sept 30. Analysts, on average, estimated US$15 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Gross margins will be in the range of 12% to 12.5%, Super Micro said on Tuesday in a statement.

The company has been benefitting from surging demand for gear to train and run artificial intelligence (AI) tasks. Super Micro’s servers are fitted with the Nvidia Corp chips that have become the preferred components for the vast majority of AI data centres. The company also has been in the limelight for a probe that accused a co-founder and two others of illegally diverting billions of dollars’ worth of servers to China in violation of US law. The firm hasn’t been charged in the case and an independent probe concluded Super Micro’s senior management had no knowledge of the purported scheme.  

The shares jumped as much as 15% to US$37.45 after markets opened in New York on Wednesday, their biggest intraday gain in over two months.

The company said it would review the results during a conference call scheduled for Nov 3. The company gave no reason for announcing the earnings in advance of the scheduled date for the report.

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