According to the latest quarterly market cap weight changes of the S&P 500 index, Palantir Technologies (PLTR.US) and Dell (DELL.US), which are considered as the big winners of the global AI boom, will be added to this benchmark index. Additionally, Erie Indemnity Co. (ERIE.US), a leading player in the American insurance industry, will also be added to the index.

According to a news release from S&P Dow Jones Indices on Friday, these companies will replace American Airlines (AAL.US), Etsy (ETSY.US), and Bio-Rad Laboratories (BIO.US). These specific changes will take effect before the start of U.S. stock trading on September 23rd.

Since 2023, the stock prices of Palantir and Dell, which are known as the "AI big winners", have been skyrocketing, and they are now joining the most highly watched benchmark index in the global stock market, reflecting the reshaping of the financial market by technology companies, especially those related to artificial intelligence.

Palantir, a big data analysis software company co-founded by billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, has grown from exclusively providing technical services to the U.S. intelligence community to comprehensive cooperation with dozens of government institutions. Recently, it has significantly expanded its business operations that integrate deeply with generative AI.

The stock price of this Denver-based technology company has surged over 75% this year, as investors believe that this big data and surveillance company will greatly benefit from the increasing demand for its generative AI tools worldwide. In 2023, Palantir's stock price soared by an astonishing 165% for the full year, and on Friday's after-hours trading, it rose as much as 8.4% due to the stimulus of the news about its imminent inclusion in the S&P 500 index.

Palantir's recent performance announcement showed that under the strong promotion of the "Palantir AI Platform" created based on its brand-new generative AI technology, Palantir continues to expand its scale of business and government operations. In the second quarter, the company's total revenue increased significantly by 27% year-on-year, reaching $0.678 billion, surpassing Wall Street analysts' expectations of $0.6528 billion. Unexpectedly, the net income for the second quarter ending in June increased by 20% to $0.134 billion, while analysts had previously estimated a net income of only $82.8 million. Palantir's adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter reached as high as $0.262 billion, a significant increase of 39% compared to the previous year.

Palantir Technologies' stock price can rise by more than 160% from the global corporate layout AI frenzy, mainly due to its deep accumulation in AI technology and product development, as well as the extensive application of its AI software products in commercial and government sectors. Palantir can provide AI-based data analysis and processing platforms for various industries, enabling them to effectively manage and analyze massive amounts of data with the help of AI, thereby optimizing decision-making processes and improving operational efficiency.

Palantir's launch of the Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) in 2023 has received widespread attention and has been used by more than 100 organizations worldwide, including the medical care and automobile industries. The company is also in talks with more than 300 additional companies. The core selling point of the AIP platform is not that Palantir is developing large language models (LLMs) itself, but rather that it focuses more on AI applications. The platform also includes AI assistants similar to ChatGPT, which can help enterprises analyze and make decisions on their big data businesses, and help customers efficiently call the modules and functions of Palantir's various platforms with low technical thresholds.

The AIP platform is fully integrated with Palantir's existing software ecosystem, enabling organizations to effectively apply generative AI to their data analysis, enhancing insight and operational efficiency. The platform supports a range of AI-driven applications, from automated management of material shortages, logistics and supply chain optimization, to predictive maintenance and threat detection.

Dell, headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, is globally known for its personal computers and monitor devices. Last week, the company's performance report showed that the sales of high-performance AI servers built for handling AI workloads have significantly increased, surpassing revenue expectations. Data shows that Dell's second-quarter revenue increased by 9% to $25 billion, surpassing the market's expected $24.5 billion. The diluted earnings per share, excluding certain items, were $1.89, also surpassing the market's expected $1.71.

The stock price of this hardware-focused technology company rose by over 7% after market hours on Friday, with a year-to-date increase of 35% and a full-year increase of 95% in 2023. Dell is committed to providing servers optimized for AI workloads, which not only have Dell's leading high-performance computing capabilities and efficient resource integration system in the industry, but also incorporate the latest AI GPUs from Nvidia to accelerate AI training and inference processes. Dell and Super Micro Computer have a large customer base focused on ChatGPT and Sora developers like OpenAI, as well as numerous AI startups, including Elon Musk's xAI, as well as Oracle and Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other cloud service giants.

Dell and Super Micro Computer (SMCI.US) have recently been increasing their manufacturing capacity to produce AI servers equipped with Nvidia H100 and updated versions of H200/GB200 GPUs in order to win larger-scale business from companies that build and use AI applications. The numerous generative AI applications, such as ChatGPT and Sora text-to-video large models, require immense data processing capabilities and ever-expanding hardware computing resources.

Through years of close cooperation with Nvidia, Dell and Super Micro Computer use the latest Nvidia GPUs and integrate a complete CUDA acceleration toolkit to provide powerful GPU acceleration capabilities for the indispensable technical link of AI training/inference workloads for global enterprises, ensuring the best integration and performance optimization of hardware and software. Their deep partnership with Nvidia ensures the highest priority of hardware and software integration and performance optimization.

After the stimulus of being included in the S&P index, Erie Indemnity, a US insurance company that rarely experiences significant price fluctuations, saw a post-market price increase of up to 5.5%.

According to the index balancing method in August, a company must have a market capitalization of at least $18 billion and meet the profit criteria, liquidity, and stock market capitalization criteria of the S&P index in order to be eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500 index.

At the same time, American Airlines was removed from the S&P 500 index, highlighting the challenges the industry has recently faced, including delays in bulk deliveries of Boeing aircraft and rising labor costs. Due to overly optimistic expectations for domestic demand, the airline significantly lowered its profit forecast in July.

In general, the S&P 500 index is the most attractive global stock market index for global funds. Being included in this stock benchmark index can significantly boost a company's visibility. As the popularity of passive investment funds tracking the S&P 500 index increases, it forms a strong positive catalyst for the market capitalization and stock prices of S&P 500 index component companies. Being removed from this benchmark index may create short-term pressure on stock prices as passive investment funds sell stocks to align with the new composition of the S&P 500 index.