AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm lead chips lower even as KeyBanc highlights trio for 2023
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AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) were among the semiconductor industry's biggest losers on Thursday, even as investment firm KeyBanc Capital Markets highlighted the group among its top picks for 2023.
In a wide spanning note, analyst John Vinh noted there is likely to be a "soft landing scenario" for semiconductors for several reasons, including a steep decline in valuations, better visibility on backlogs, favorable pricing scenarios and secular growth drivers such as the internet of things, electric vehicles and data centers. 
Vinh said consumer facing markets such as PCs, smartphones and others should continue to fall, but any decline is likely to be "partially" offset by growth in the cloud data center and vehicles.
AMD (AMD) shares fell nearly 4% in mid-day trading, even as Vinh said the Dr. Lisa Su-led company is "one of the most levered" to the cloud and has gained market share compared from Intel (INTC) thanks to its Genoa chip ramp, which "should sustain outsized server growth."
Separately on Thursday, AMD (AMD) announced its adaptive computing technology is powering DENSO Corporationâs next-generation LiDAR platform.
Conversely, Intel (INTC) shares fell 1.2% in mid-day trading. 
Nvidia (NVDA) dropped more than 3% despite Vinh's thesis that the company is likely to benefit from new product ramps, including Hopper and RTX40 for data center and gaming, respectively.
Qualcomm (QCOM) tumbled 3.5% as Vinh said it should benefit from a bottoming in the smartphone market and China's "reopening" from COVID-19 should result in "multiple tailwinds."
Also among Vinh's other favorite picks for 2023 are KLA Corp. (NASDAQ:KLAC) and MKS Instruments (MKSI), which declined approximately 3% each.
NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), ON Semiconductor (ON), Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR) and Broadcom (AVGO) fell 2% or more, while Analog Devices (ADI), Micron Technology (MU) and Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) saw more modest losses.

Goldman Sachs recently picked Nvidia (NVDA) as one of its top 50 return on equity stocks for 2023.