NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 14:06 ET — Regular session
- Nvidia led a pullback in AI-linked stocks after Intel disclosed it completed a $5 billion share sale to the chip designer.
- Broadcom, Palantir and other AI bellwethers also fell as year-end, holiday-thinned trading kept moves choppy.
- Investors are watching Federal Reserve minutes and weekly jobless claims later this week for fresh clues on the rate outlook.
Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks slipped on Monday afternoon, with Nvidia down about 1.7% after Intel said it had completed a $5 billion private share sale to the chip designer.
The move matters now because a small group of AI-heavyweights has driven much of the market’s momentum, leaving investors quick to adjust risk when the leaders wobble.
Trading has also turned thin in the holiday week, a setup that can exaggerate swings when big funds rebalance portfolios into year-end, Reuters reported.
In a Form 8-K, Intel said it issued and sold 214,776,632 shares to Nvidia at $23.28 per share, completing the transaction on Dec. 26 in a private placement — a direct sale to a single buyer rather than the open market.
Nvidia was last down about 1.7% at $187.33, while Intel was up roughly 0.25% at $36.29.
Other AI bellwethers were lower as well, with Broadcom down about 0.7%, Palantir off roughly 1.8% and AMD down about 0.2%.
“This is not the beginning of the end of the tech dominance, it’ll turn out to be a buying opportunity,” said Hank Smith, director and head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust. Reuters
Cloud and ad-platform stocks tied to AI spending also eased, with Microsoft down about 0.4%, Alphabet off roughly 0.3% and Meta down close to 1%.
The pullback comes as traders look for signs of a “Santa Claus rally” — the seasonal tendency for stocks to rise in the last five trading days of the year and the first two of January — even as tech leadership cools, Reuters reported. Reuters
What comes next is mostly macro: investors are watching minutes from the Fed’s prior meeting and weekly jobless claims in an otherwise light data week, Reuters said.
For AI stocks, the near-term question is whether buyers return once year-end selling and position-squaring passes, or whether profit-taking spreads after a strong run in the sector.
Intel said the share sale followed a securities purchase agreement signed in September, and it pointed to its earlier disclosure of the deal at that time.
