NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 04:29 ET — Premarket
- Nvidia fell about 1% in premarket trading after Intel disclosed Nvidia completed a $5 billion share purchase.
- Intel rose about 1% premarket, while AMD was little changed and Broadcom edged lower as chip names digested year-end headlines.
- Traders are watching Federal Reserve minutes and jobless claims in a thin, holiday-shortened week.
Nvidia shares dipped 1.2% to $188.22 in premarket trading on Tuesday after Intel said a $5 billion stock purchase by the AI chip designer had been completed. Intel shares rose 1.3% to $36.68. (source)
The move lands as investors reassess crowded “AI trade” positions into the final sessions of the year, with thinner liquidity often amplifying early moves in mega-cap tech.
It also keeps attention on the hardware supply chain behind the AI boom, where cross-border policy and capital spending decisions can move chip and data-center names quickly.
Intel said in a filing on Monday that Nvidia bought more than 214.7 million shares at $23.28 per share. The shares were sold via a private placement — meaning Intel sold stock directly to Nvidia rather than in the open market — and U.S. antitrust agencies had cleared the investment, Reuters reported.
Other AI-linked stocks were mixed in early trading. AMD was up 0.3% at $215.61, while Broadcom slipped 0.8% to $349.39. Palantir, a software maker closely watched by AI traders, fell 2.4% to $184.18.
The broader tech backdrop remains cautious after Monday’s pullback in U.S. equities. The Nasdaq ended down 0.5% and Nvidia fell 1.2% in regular trading, as investors trimmed some exposure to heavyweight tech names, Reuters reported. “This is not the beginning of the end of the tech dominance; it’ll turn out to be a buying opportunity,” said Hank Smith, head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust. (source)
Overnight policy headlines out of China added another variable for chip investors. China is requiring chipmakers to use at least 50% domestically made equipment when adding new manufacturing capacity, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters, a push that could squeeze foreign tool suppliers over time. (source)
That focus on equipment matters for AI hardware because chipmaking tools sit upstream of supply. U.S.-listed Lam Research fell 1.2% in premarket trading, while Dutch chip-equipment maker ASML’s U.S. shares were down 0.6%.
Washington’s export-control posture also stayed in view. The U.S. government granted annual licenses to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to ship chipmaking equipment to their China facilities for 2026, two people familiar with the matter said — replacing a broader exemption known as “validated end user” status, which allowed some shipments without case-by-case licenses. (source)
For AI investors, the near-term read-through is less about a single deal and more about whether supply constraints ease or tighten across chips, memory and networking as data-center buildouts continue.
What traders are watching next is the macro calendar in a data-light, holiday-shortened week. Investors have Federal Reserve minutes and weekly jobless claims on the radar, after Monday’s session showed how quickly tech-heavy markets can wobble when volume is thin.
