New York, Jan 8, 2026, 06:21 EST — Premarket
Nvidia (NVDA.O) rose about 1% in U.S. premarket trade on Thursday after Reuters reported the company is requiring full upfront payment from Chinese customers seeking its H200 artificial intelligence chips, tightening terms as Beijing weighs approvals. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM.N) fell 2.6%, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) slid 2% and Intel (INTC.O) jumped 6.4%, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) was down about 1%.
The China headline hit a sector that has started 2026 on a run, with the PHLX semiconductor index hitting an all-time high on Tuesday as investors chased AI-linked spending. “We’re going to have a very strong earnings season for Big Tech,” said Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital. Reuters
Chip stocks have turned more sensitive to trade policy than most corners of tech because the biggest gains are tied to data-center buildouts, and that supply chain runs through China, Taiwan and the United States.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show this week he expects China approval to show up as orders: “It’s just going to be purchase orders.” CFO Colette Kress said the U.S. government was “working feverishly” on export license applications, but Nvidia still does not know when approvals will come; the H200 is the predecessor to Nvidia’s current flagship “Blackwell” chips. Reuters
At CES, Huang also laid out more details about Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform, which he said is in “full production” and due to debut later this year. The flagship server would include 72 graphics chips and 36 central processors, part of a push to stay ahead of rivals and big customers building their own AI silicon. Reuters
AMD CEO Lisa Su used the same Las Vegas stage to tout MI455 AI processors and an “enterprise” MI440X chip aimed at on-site deployments, and she previewed the MI500 line for 2027. OpenAI President Greg Brockman, appearing with Su, said faster chips remain critical to the company’s computing needs. Reuters
Overseas, Samsung Electronics projected a three-fold jump in fourth-quarter operating profit to a record high on tight memory supply, and data from TrendForce showed contract prices for a type of DRAM jumped 313% in the quarter. DRAM is the workhorse memory used in servers and PCs; high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, is a faster variant stacked for AI processors — and Huang called demand “really, really quite terrific.” Reuters
But the rally has left chip stocks with less room to shrug off bad news. A longer approval process in China, slower U.S. export licenses or a surprise turn in rates can quickly squeeze the most crowded AI trades.
Markets now turn to Friday’s U.S. employment report for December, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, for clues on growth and rate-cut bets that tend to swing long-duration tech shares.
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