By Priyanka G
(Reuters) -AI server maker Super Micro Computer forecast fourth-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates on Tuesday and said economic uncertainty and tariffs might pressure near-term performance, sending its shares down 5.4% in extended trading.
The San Jose, California-based company, which has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the surge in spending on advanced data center infrastructure to support generative AI workloads, had faced months of accounting-related issues, fanning worries of a potential Nasdaq delisting.
Super Micro – which builds AI servers using chips from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and others – forecast quarterly revenue of $5.6 billion to $6.4 billion, compared with analysts’ estimate of $6.82 billion, according to LSEG data.
“Looking at the AI spending plans of the large public companies, SMCI’s lower guidance in sales looks like it is a self-inflicted wound,” said Kim Caughey Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners LLC.
Some clients have delayed spending in the reported quarter, but those commitments are expected to land in the June-September quarter, Super Micro said in a statement.
Investors are keenly watching for any signs of a pullback in AI-linked investments due to tariff-related uncertainties by parsing comments and forecasts from companies that provide critical infrastructure in the form of servers and chips to support the technology.
However, it is too early to tell whether these disappointing results indicate a cooling data center business, said Gil Luria, managing director at D.A. Davidson & Co.
“It is more likely Super Micro is losing share to the likes of Dell due to company-specific problems,” Luria added.
For fiscal 2025, the company forecast revenue of $21.8 billion to $22.6 billion, down from its previous projection of $23.5 billion to $25.0 billion.
The company reported its preliminary results last week.
(Reporting by Priyanka.G and Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru ; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
