Shares of Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI) moved higher in after-hours trading, gaining 6% following a blockbuster quarterly report from Hewlett Packard Enterprise that highlighted rapidly expanding demand for AI servers across the industry.
HPE stock surged 36.6% in after-hours trading after the company posted fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $0.79, comfortably above the $0.53 consensus. Revenue for the quarter reached $10.68 billion, a 40% year-over-year increase, driven primarily by cloud and AI revenue of $7.71 billion that exceeded the $6.87 billion estimate.
The company’s server division produced $5.45 billion in revenue, topping analyst expectations of $4.66 billion. HPE leadership described the quarter as exceptional, citing record revenue, stronger-than-expected profitability, and improved free cash flow as evidence of solid execution and broad-based demand.
Following the results, HPE lifted its full-year earnings per share guidance by $1.00 to a new range of $3.35 to $3.45, and said it is tracking two years ahead of its long-term financial plan. For the third quarter of fiscal 2026, the company provided revenue guidance of $11.5 billion to $12.1 billion and non-GAAP EPS guidance of $0.88 to $0.93.
Chief Executive Antonio Neri told media the firm saw triple-digit gains in traditional server bookings, producing the largest backlog in company history. Chief Financial Officer Marie Myers attributed the quarter’s performance in part to enterprise customers adopting agentic AI as a core workload.
At COMPUTEX, HPE introduced the ProLiant Compute DL394 Gen12 server based on the NVIDIA Vera CPU, a platform the company said is designed to support agentic AI, reinforcement learning, and complex data processing.
Context and market reaction
HPE’s strong beat on both the top and bottom lines and its outlook revision appear to have driven enthusiasm across the server and enterprise hardware space. That industry-wide lift coincided with after-hours gains in other server-related equities, including Super Micro Computer.
Implications for sectors
- Technology hardware and server manufacturers - strength in server bookings and AI workloads is supporting revenue gains and higher guidance.
- Cloud infrastructure and enterprise IT - elevated cloud and AI revenue contributed materially to HPE’s results.
- Semiconductor partners powering AI servers - product introductions such as the DL394 Gen12 highlight close ties between server OEMs and CPU vendors.