[US Stock Trends] Why did Super Micro Computer [SMCI] rise 60% in the first half of 2025 | Motley Fool US Stock Information | Moneyクリ Money Forward Securities Investment Information and Media Useful for Money

Motley Fool US Headquarters – Article posted on July 13, 2025

According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the stock price of Super Micro Computer [SMCI], a server manufacturer specializing in artificial intelligence (AI), rose by 60.8% in the first half of 2025.

Super Micro faced a tumultuous period in the second half of 2024 with short selling, followed by the resignation of its auditing firm in October, leading into 2025.

BDO approves financial results, Super Micro stock surges

In February 2025, BDO International (hereafter referred to as BDO), the new auditor of Super Micro, approved the financial statements for the past three years. This seemed to recognize the company's reliability, and coupled with the rise of optimism regarding AI growth in May and June, it significantly boosted the stock price from its low valuation at the beginning of the year.

In its audit, BDO presented a negative opinion regarding Super Micro's internal management and procedures. However, upon actual verification of transactions for the fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024, BDO stated that Super Micro's financial statements "fairly present the company's financial position in all material respects."

In other words, Super Micro, while lacking somewhat in the rigor of administrative procedures as a publicly traded company in the United States, was clearly deemed not to have any issues in response to the worst allegations of wrongdoing. As a result, the stock price surged to over $66 in early February 2025.

NVIDIA [NVDA] affected by delays at Blackwell Semiconductor

However, the rise in stock prices was short-lived. This was due to the impact of the tariff war initiated by the Trump administration. Super Micro proudly identifies as a U.S.-based server manufacturer, but its supply chain for components and its partner semiconductor manufacturers are highly international. As a result, Super Micro, like many AI-related companies, saw its stock prices decline again.

In fact, Super Micro has underperformed in terms of revenue growth in the past two quarterly earnings reports, which was somewhat disappointing. Nevertheless, the growth rates are 54.9% for the quarterly earnings report for the fiscal year ending December 2024 and 19.5% for the quarterly earnings report for the fiscal year ending March 2025, which are not such bad figures.

The management cited the delay in the release of NVIDIA's [NVDA] Blackwell semiconductors as the reason for the revenue growth rate falling short of expectations. Blackwell is set to begin production at the end of 2024, with production expanding through the first quarter of 2025. Therefore, as Super Micro stated that "customer platform decisions were delayed," the limited availability of Blackwell in the March quarter may have been a contributing factor. However, management has a forecast that this quarter's sales will increase by 30% compared to the previous quarter, signaling the beginning of an expansion cycle for Blackwell semiconductors for Super Micro.

Where is Supermicro headed in the future?

About a week after the earnings announcement in May 2025, Super Micro received further good news. The company signed a multi-year contract worth a total of $20 billion with Data Vault, a data center operator in Saudi Arabia. This was realized as part of the strategic partnership between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia. Unsurprisingly, following this announcement, the stock prices of Super Micro and other AI-related companies surged.

Despite the rise in the first half of 2025, Super Micro's stock price is still far from its 2024 highs, and the price-to-earnings ratio (PER) based on projected profits for 2026 is at 16 times as of the time of writing this article.

This cannot be said to be overpriced as an AI stock expected to have high growth, but the unstable growth and profit margin concerns surrounding Super Micro, along with the short selling results in 2024, may be constraining the valuation as investors hesitate to buy. The trend of performance following Blackwell's full-scale operation and whether investor sentiment will continue to recover going forward will be closely watched.

Disclaimer and Disclosure The article is intended solely for general information purposes and does not constitute investment advice to investors. The original article's author, Billy Duberstein, and his clients hold shares of Super Micro Computer. The Motley Fool U.S. headquarters holds and recommends shares of NVIDIA. The Motley Fool U.S. headquarters has established an information disclosure policy.