The Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price is off to the races today.
Shares in the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) AI stock closed yesterday trading for $1.29. In afternoon trade on Thursday, shares are swapping hands for $1.52 apiece, up 18.3%.
For some context, the All Ords is up 0.8%.
This massive outperformance comes despite no fresh news out from the company today.
And it now sees Appen stock up a whopping 145% in 2024.
But it's not just the Appen share price that's outperforming today.
ASX tech shares are leading the charge higher, with the S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) up 1.7% at the time of writing.
Image source: Getty Images
What's boosting the Appen share price today?
With no news out from the ASX tech stock today, investors appear to be bidding up the Appen share price amid renewed enthusiasm around generative AI.
Shares in US chip-making giant NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) rocketed 8.2% yesterday (overnight Aussie time) after CEO Jensen Huang said the company's products are in such high demand that his company can barely keep up.
The Appen share price also looks to be getting a boost from the buzz around OpenAI, which is responsible for rolling out Chat GPT. As the Motley Fool reported earlier today, the privately-owned OpenAI is reportedly in talks for a new round of funding.
Open AI was said to be valued at US$150 billion. Some 75% more than its valuation earlier this year.
A number of powerhouse tech stocks are reported to potentially participate in the new funding, including Nvidia, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT), an existing major investor.
Commenting on the generative AI opportunities that could boost the Appen share price back in August, CEO Ryan Kolln said, "Appen's success in generative AI is resulting in a positive revenue trajectory."
He added that over the first half of 2024:
We saw strong growth in China and Global Product driven by generative AI projects, with China achieving consecutive revenue records across the quarters… Generative AI development depends on vast amounts of high-quality data.
What's been happening with the ASX All Ords tech stock?
Appen reported its half-year results for the six months ended 30 June (H1 FY 2024) on 30 August.
Key financial metrics included an 18.4% year on year decline in revenue to $113.4 million.
While the company still booked an underlying net loss after tax of $11.8 million, this marked a $22.4 million improvement from the net loss reported in H1 FY 2023.
Almost all of the revenue decline was due to the termination of Appen's Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ: GOOGL) contract.
Appen's Global Services revenue took a particularly hard hit from the termination of the Google account, down 36.5% year over year to $63.6 million.
The Appen share price crashed 17.7% on the day of that release. Ground it's more than made up for since.
