Key Highlights

● Flex posted record adjusted earnings of $1.18 a share.

● The company raised its full-year revenue forecast to $34.9B-$35.9B.

● Cloud and Power Infrastructure sales are expected to climb sharply.

● Flex has a planned business spin-off in the works.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) jumped on Wednesday, October 28, ranking among the strongest gainers in the S&P 500 after the electronics manufacturer delivered a quarter that topped expectations and lifted its outlook.

Reports put the gain in the double digits, though sources differed slightly on the exact size of the move.

Record EPS

Flex reported adjusted earnings of $1.18 a share for its fiscal second quarter, comfortably ahead of the $1.05 analysts had expected, and a record for the company. Sales rose as well.

The company raised its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $34.9 billion to $35.9 billion. Market reports tied the upgrade to demand for AI hardware, and Flex said it expects sales in its Cloud and Power Infrastructure business to climb sharply. Flex also has a planned spin-off in the works, another item on the list of developments investors are tracking as the company reshapes its business.

Why AI Matters to a Manufacturer

Flex builds and assembles products for other companies, from data-center racks and power systems to automotive and industrial equipment. As cloud providers race to install AI servers, they lean on manufacturers that can integrate power, cooling and computing hardware at scale.

That has turned the electronics manufacturing services industry into an unexpected beneficiary of the AI boom. According to market data, peers including Plexus (NASDAQ:PLXS), Sanmina (NASDAQ:SANM) and Benchmark Electronics (NYSE:BHE) moved with the sector on the strength of Flex and Celestica (NYSE:CLS).

The AI Trade Fires Up

Flex's rally fit neatly into a broad AI infrastructure day. Vertiv Holdings (NYSE:VRT) rocketed after reporting orders more than doubled, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) soared after setting a $225 billion fiscal 2030 revenue target, and SK hynix (NASDAQ:SKHY) jumped after a record quarter. Amphenol (NYSE:APH), Micron (NASDAQ:MU), Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) all climbed.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose for a fourth straight session to close at 11,684.00. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), by contrast, slipped. The S&P 500 rose 21.38 points to 7,743.98, its third straight gain.

What to Watch

The AI spending debate moved into extended trading. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose after its Azure cloud business accelerated, while Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) slid sharply after missing profit expectations, though it also raised its 2026 capital spending forecast to between $195 billion and $205 billion.

Thursday's calendar includes advance third-quarter GDP and September PCE data at 8:30 a.m. ET, results from Mastercard (NYSE:MA), Merck (NYSE:MRK) and Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) before the open, and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) after the close.