NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 10:37 ET — Regular session
- Nvidia was down about 1.8% and Intel up about 0.7% after Intel disclosed Nvidia completed a $5 billion purchase of Intel shares. 1
- Semiconductor and Nasdaq-100 ETFs were modestly lower in thin holiday trading as investors trimmed tech exposure.
- Traders are watching Fed meeting minutes and weekly jobless claims later this week, with U.S. markets shut Thursday for New Year’s Day. 2
Nvidia shares fell nearly 2% in morning trading on Monday after Intel said in a filing that the AI chip leader completed a $5 billion purchase of Intel stock. Intel shares were slightly higher. 1
The pullback matters because big tech and chip stocks have done much of the heavy lifting for U.S. equities in 2025, leaving the market sensitive to moves in a handful of AI bellwethers. 2
It also lands in the final, holiday-thinned stretch of the year, when liquidity can be light and small flows can have an outsized impact on high-profile names. U.S. markets are shut on Thursday for New Year’s Day. 2
The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), a proxy for megacap tech, was down about 0.5%. Semiconductor ETFs also eased, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) off about 0.7%.
Intel’s filing said Nvidia bought more than 214.7 million Intel shares at $23.28 a share, under a deal announced in September. 1
The shares were sold in a private placement — a direct sale to an investor rather than a public offering — and U.S. antitrust agencies had cleared the investment earlier in December, Reuters reported. 1
Other AI chip names were broadly lower alongside Nvidia. Advanced Micro Devices was down about 1%, and Broadcom fell about 1%.
Among megacap AI beneficiaries, Microsoft was down about 1%, while Alphabet and Meta Platforms also traded lower.
Not every AI-adjacent name was in the red. DigitalBridge jumped about 10% after SoftBank said it would acquire the digital infrastructure investor in a deal valued at $4 billion. 2
“They’ll likely need tech to do much of the heavy lifting,” said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley. 2
Investors have been looking for a “Santa Claus rally” — the seasonal tendency for the S&P 500 to rise in the last five trading days of the year and the first two sessions of January — though early-week trading showed less momentum in tech. 2
On the calendar, traders are focused on minutes from the Federal Reserve’s prior meeting and a weekly reading on jobless claims in an otherwise light week for U.S. economic data. 2
With volumes expected to stay thin into year-end, investors said the next test for AI-linked shares will be whether chip leaders stabilize enough to keep broader indexes supported into the holiday-shortened close of 2025. 2
