Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI) surged 7.0% to close at US$25.50 during Tuesday's United States deals, before rallying a further 19% in extended trade after disclosing it collected more than $60 billion in new orders during Q4, a haul that dwarfs the backlog investors had priced in ahead of formal earnings.
The company also lifted its gross margin outlook to a range of 15% to 17%, nearly double the 8.2% to 8.4% band management had guided to in May - a revision it attributed to a more favourable customer and product mix.
SMCI chief executive Charles Liang tied the surge to work with SpaceXAI, the entity Elon Musk formed when SpaceX completed its all-stock acquisition of xAI in February, and fully absorbed the AI unit by early July.
Liang told investors the partnership now anchors a new wave of gigawatt-scale AI data centre builds, a claim that helped explain why the margin revision landed as it did.
Rivals felt the updraft too, with Dell Technologies climbing 5% and Hewlett Packard Enterprise adding 4% in extended trading, as the update reinforced accelerating demand across the AI server supply chain.
Revenue for the June quarter is expected to land at the low end of Super Micro's previously issued $11-12.5 billion range, trailing the $11.67 billion analysts polled by LSEG had forecast.
That gap is a reminder that the margin story and the top-line story are pulling in different directions this cycle, even as the order book breaks records.
Super Micro said its backlog closed the fiscal year at a record level, with the fourth-quarter surge in orders expected to convert into delivered revenue across future quarters rather than the current one.
That distinction matters for anyone modelling near-term cash flow against the headline order figure, since a booked order and a billed order are not the same thing.
The company has scheduled its full earnings call for 11 August, when management is likely to face detailed questions on how much of the SpaceXAI relationship is contracted rather than still being negotiated.
