NEW YORK, Jan 28, 2026, 17:03 (EST) — In after-hours trading
- Nvidia gained in late trading following reports that China approved purchases of its H200 AI chips by ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent, according to sources.
- Shares of Microsoft, Meta and Tesla fluctuated following quarterly earnings, as investors zeroed in on rising AI infrastructure costs.
- Shares of chipmakers like Texas Instruments and Intel surged, boosted by data center demand stretching beyond Nvidia’s top processors.
AI-related stocks swung in after-hours Wednesday, rattled by fresh earnings and chip news as investors wrestle with the true cost of the AI surge.
Nvidia (NVDA) climbed 1.6% to $191.52. Microsoft (MSFT) bounced back, ending little changed after earlier dropping as much as 7%. Meta Platforms (META) slipped 0.9% following a roughly 10% gain, while Tesla (TSLA) held steady after a nearly 4% spike. Texas Instruments (TXN) surged close to 10%, and Intel (INTC) gained about 11%.
The action followed a quiet regular session after the Federal Reserve kept its policy rate steady at 3.50%-3.75%, with traders still betting on a first rate cut in June. The S&P 500 slipped 0.01% to 6,977.87, after briefly crossing the 7,000 mark for the first time. The Nasdaq edged up 0.17%. “Whether you were bullish or bearish going into the press conference you walked away feeling about the same,” said Michael James, equity sales trader at Rosenblatt Securities. 1
This is crucial now since the AI trade has turned into the market’s main driver. Investors are sizing up cloud growth, chip supply, and capital spending as a test of whether all that investment will translate into lasting profits.
China has given the green light for ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent to buy over 400,000 of Nvidia’s H200 chips combined, sources revealed. This could ease the shipment logjam that’s lasted for weeks. However, the approvals come with conditions still being ironed out. One source noted that customers haven’t yet turned their licenses into purchase orders, citing the restrictions as too tight. 2
Chip shares followed a similar pattern in regular trading. Texas Instruments, known for analog chips that regulate power in data centers, jumped after its first-quarter outlook hinted that AI demand is spreading beyond Nvidia’s high-end processors. Louise Dudley, global equities portfolio manager at Federated Hermes, said, “Conditions are improving and that they are expanding their growth plans.” Meanwhile, Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, described ASML’s quarterly results as “a thumping set of numbers.” 3
Microsoft’s Azure cloud revenue climbed 39%, slightly beating expectations, but investors were shaken by a steep rise in spending amid AI ambitions. Capital expenditures surged 66% to $37.5 billion. The company revealed its contracted cloud backlog — deals signed but not yet recognized as revenue — more than doubled to $625 billion, with around 45% linked to OpenAI. “Roughly two thirds of that is for our short lived assets,” said investor relations chief Jonathan Neilson to Reuters, referring to CPUs and GPUs. 4
Just two days ago, Microsoft unveiled its Maia 200 accelerator, a chip designed specifically for “inference” — that is, running trained AI models to produce output. It’s set to handle workloads like OpenAI’s newest GPT-5.2 models. The company has already started rolling out Maia 200 in its US Central datacenter region, with plans to expand to US West 3 soon. 5
Meta projects capital spending between $115 billion and $135 billion by 2026, focusing on AI infrastructure to reach “superintelligence”—the point where machines outperform humans. The company confirmed compute deals with Alphabet, CoreWeave, and Nebius. It also plans to trim roughly 10% of Reality Labs staff, redirecting funds toward AI and wearables. 6
Tesla plans to pour about $2 billion into Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI, strengthening its focus on autonomy and robotics. Musk cautioned last week that early production of the Cybercab robotaxi and Optimus robot will be “agonizingly slow,” while investors still await clearer timelines for Full Self-Driving approvals. The automaker posted quarterly revenue of $24.9 billion, beating analysts’ estimates. 7
SoftBank is reportedly negotiating to pump up to $30 billion more into OpenAI, according to a source. This funding round could top $100 billion, pushing the ChatGPT owner’s valuation to around $830 billion. The figure highlights just how much capital is required to develop and operate large AI models, even as chipmakers and cloud providers expand their infrastructure. 8
The AI rally carries steep risks. Investors swiftly punish signs of slowing growth even as spending rises, and export restrictions or chip shortages can quickly throw supply and demand off balance.
Nvidia will report its fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Feb. 25. Investors will be watching closely for guidance on data-center demand and clues about how much China-bound business is actually turning into shipments. 9
