Technology stocks are back at the center of market attention this week, with several large companies making announcements that could shape trading through the rest of the year. Robinhood is preparing to extend stock trading into the weekend, AMD has agreed to an $8.2 billion acquisition of an AI startup, and Micron is set to report earnings with AI memory demand in sharp focus. Wall Street also received some relief from newly released inflation numbers, and investors are watching closely to see how these stories connect.

Robinhood Extends Trading Into the Weekend

Robinhood Markets announced plans to let customers trade selected U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) around the clock, including on weekends — a first for many retail traders. The service will run through a trading system called Bruce ATS and still requires regulatory approval before it can launch. Bruce ATS is an alternative trading system — a regulated venue that matches buyers and sellers outside the traditional exchanges — so that approval process is the key milestone to watch before weekend trading can begin.

The company is also building out a broader product lineup. Among the projects in development are earnings prediction markets, perpetual futures, and AI agents that can automate parts of the trading process. Robinhood says these tools are designed to give everyday investors access to features that were once reserved for professional traders. Taken together, the projects point to the company building out its platform well beyond conventional stock and ETF orders.

AMD to Acquire World Labs for $8.2 Billion

AMD has agreed to acquire World Labs, an AI startup co-founded by researcher Fei-Fei Li, in a stock deal worth approximately $8.2 billion. Li is one of the most prominent figures in AI research, best known for creating ImageNet, the image dataset that helped spark the modern deep-learning era. World Labs focuses on helping AI systems understand three-dimensional spaces, a specialty that could help AMD grow in robotics and simulation technology.

Because the agreement is structured in stock, the deal's final value will move with AMD's share price until it closes. The transaction ranks among AMD's largest AI investments to date. AMD continues to compete with Nvidia in the AI chip market, although Nvidia still holds an edge through its software tools. Acquisitions like this are one of the levers chipmakers are using to add capabilities as the AI market expands.

Micron Earnings in Focus

Micron Technology is scheduled to report earnings after the market closes, and investors are watching demand for the high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI systems. High-bandwidth memory packs memory chips close to the processor so data can move faster, which is a large part of why AI data centers need such large amounts of memory operating alongside processors — a dependence that has made Micron a key player in the AI hardware supply chain.

Because the report lands after the closing bell, the first full market reaction will come in the following trading session. Analysts expect the earnings report to ripple through other chip stocks as well. A strong outlook could lift the sector, while a weak one could raise concerns about AI spending.

Nvidia Boosts Buyback as OpenAI Launches New Agents

Nvidia raised its share buyback program by $150 billion, lifting its total buyback capacity to approximately $235 billion through fiscal 2028 — a larger authorization than Apple's previous record. Buybacks are a standard way for companies to return cash to shareholders by repurchasing their own stock. Nvidia shares gained more than 2% after the news came out.

In a separate development, OpenAI introduced a set of new autonomous AI agents called Dots. The agents can work across applications such as Slack and Microsoft Teams to complete ongoing tasks on behalf of users. OpenAI said it built in safeguards that let companies limit what the agents are allowed to do. The launch puts OpenAI in closer competition with Meta in the growing agent space, and it marks another step in the industry's shift from chat-based assistants toward software that acts inside everyday workplace tools.

Cooler Inflation Data Lifts the Nasdaq

Fresh inflation figures for August came in lower than expected, easing concerns that the Federal Reserve would need to raise interest rates again soon. The Nasdaq rose more than 1% after the report, and the S&P 500 also moved higher on the same day.

Lower inflation tends to ease pressure on growth stocks, particularly those tied to technology, since their valuations rest heavily on that are expected further in the future. With the inflation data now behind them, investors are turning their attention to Micron's earnings as the next major event of the week.