AI Stocks Weekly Recap (16–21 November 2025): Nvidia Earnings, Anthropic Mega‑Deal and Oracle Slump Test the AI Bubble

Published: 22 November 2025

Overview: A Wild Week Where AI Hype Met Hard Reality

AI stocks just lived through one of their most volatile weeks of 2025. Despite a strong rebound on Friday, all three major U.S. indices still finished the week in the red as investors wrestled with two clashing narratives: spectacular AI-driven earnings and mounting fears of an “AI bubble.” ^[1]

From 16–21 November, markets digested:

Blowout results from Nvidia, the world’s most valuable public company, with record data-center revenue powered by AI demand. ^[2]
A new $15 billion investment pact by Microsoft and Nvidia in OpenAI rival Anthropic, locking in tens of billions of dollars of AI cloud and chip spending. ^[3]
A brutal selloff in Oracle, now viewed as a poster child for AI-capex excess, with its stock down roughly 40% in two months. ^[4]
Alphabet’s AI-fueled breakout, as enthusiasm around its Gemini 3 model pushed the company close to overtaking Microsoft in market value. ^[5]

Layered on top was an increasingly loud debate on whether AI spending has gone too far, with everyone from Klarna’s founder to Google’s CEO warning about bubble risks even as they double down on AI. ^[6]

1. Market Backdrop: Volatility, Rate-Cut Hopes and AI Jitters

The week opened under pressure. In the run-up to Nvidia’s earnings, investors dumped high‑growth, AI‑heavy tech stocks, pushing the S&P 500 into a multi‑day slide. ^[7]

On Tuesday, 18 November, the Dow fell nearly 500 points as headlines screamed about an “AI bubble” and fading odds of a near‑term Fed rate cut. AI leaders including Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta all traded lower that day. ^[8]
Through Thursday, AI bubble fears “returned” in force, with the Nasdaq dropping more than 2% in its most turbulent session since April, according to multiple market wraps. ^[9]

Friday brought relief. Dovish comments from New York Fed President John Williams revived hopes of a December rate cut, sending the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq up around 1% on the day. But all three indexes still logged weekly losses, as worries about lofty AI-driven tech valuations refused to go away. ^[10]

2. Nvidia’s Monster Quarter: Fundamentals Still Look Like 2021, Not 2000

The focal point of the week was Nvidia’s fiscal Q3 2026 earnings, reported on 19 November.

Key numbers: ^[11]

Record revenue of $57.0 billion, up 22% versus last quarter and 62% year over year.
Data center revenue of $51.2 billion, up 25% sequentially and 66% year over year, driven almost entirely by AI server chips.
Q4 revenue guidance of around $65 billion, again ahead of Wall Street expectations.
Roughly 61% of revenue came from just four major customers, underscoring how concentrated AI infrastructure spending has become.

On the earnings call, CEO Jensen Huang doubled down on the long‑term AI story, saying Nvidia “excels at every phase of AI” and positioning the company as central to the shift toward generative and “physical/agentic” AI. ^[12]

Markets initially loved it. Nvidia’s stock jumped as much as 5% in extended trading, with peers like Broadcom, TSMC and AMD rallying in sympathy. ^[13]

But by Thursday, much of those gains had evaporated:

Some reports noted that Nvidia gave back big early gains as investors rotated out of expensive AI names despite the stellar numbers. ^[14]
A number of commentators argued that even “blowout” AI earnings no longer automatically trigger a frenzy, a sign that the market is becoming more discerning about valuations. ^[15]

Bottom line: Nvidia’s fundamentals still look extraordinary, but investors are increasingly focused on how long this level of demand and pricing power can last — and what happens if the AI capex boom slows.

3. Microsoft and Nvidia’s $15 Billion Anthropic Deal: When Mega-Deals Stop Lifting Stocks

Another defining story of the week was the new three‑way tie-up between Microsoft, Nvidia and Anthropic, announced on 18 November. ^[16]

The structure of the deal, according to multiple reports:

Anthropic will receive up to $15 billion in new funding: up to $10 billion from Nvidia and up to $5 billion from Microsoft, as part of a larger round.
In return, Anthropic commits around $30 billion of spending on Microsoft Azure cloud computing over several years. ^[17]
Nvidia also secures a huge long‑term customer for its AI GPUs, with Anthropic expected to tap roughly 1 gigawatt of Nvidia hardware capacity to power its Claude models. ^[18]
The round values Anthropic in the high hundreds of billions of dollars, with some coverage suggesting it could exceed $300 billion once fully closed, making it one of the most richly valued private AI companies ever. ^[19]

Strategically, the deal:

Gives Microsoft a second “frontier model” partner alongside OpenAI, while maintaining an estimated 27% stake in OpenAI’s new structure. ^[20]
Ensures Anthropic’s Claude becomes the only top-tier foundation model available on all three major clouds — Amazon, Google and now Microsoft. ^[21]

Yet the market reaction was telling:

On the very day this massive AI deal was unveiled, tech stocks slumped, and a big chunk of coverage highlighted that “big AI deals aren’t what they used to be” — they no longer automatically send AI stocks soaring. ^[22]

Investors increasingly see these deals not just as growth engines, but as liability and capital‑intensity commitments that could hurt margins if AI revenue doesn’t live up to the hype.

4. Alphabet’s Gemini 3 Breakout Puts Pressure on Microsoft

While Nvidia and Microsoft battled valuation fatigue, Alphabet (Google) was the AI winner of the week.

On 18–19 November, Alphabet:

Launched its latest AI model, Gemini 3, with early reviews praising its capabilities and enterprise focus. ^[23]
Saw its stock jump as much as 6–7% intraday, hitting a fresh all‑time high and prompting a surge in call‑option activity. ^[24]

By 20 November, MarketWatch noted that Alphabet was on the verge of overtaking Microsoft as the third‑largest U.S. company by market cap, with a valuation around $3.64 trillion versus about $3.62 trillion for Microsoft and roughly 60% year‑to‑date share price gains. ^[25]

Analysts framed this as:

Evidence that Google’s AI strategy is finally resonating, after spending much of 2023–2024 on the defensive.
A reminder that Microsoft’s heavy bets on OpenAI and Anthropic come with execution risk and could weigh on margins, even as they cement its role in AI infrastructure. ^[26]

At the same time, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai warned in a BBC interview that “no firm is immune” if an AI bubble bursts, even as Alphabet spends billions on new AI data centers and research, including a £5 billion UK program. ^[27]

So, paradoxically, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom is also openly cautioning about its excesses.

5. Oracle: From AI Darling to Cautionary Tale

No AI‑linked stock captured investor anxiety this week more than Oracle.

Multiple outlets reported that:

Oracle’s share price plunged over 20% in November alone and more than 40% in roughly two months, erasing earlier AI‑hype gains and marking its worst monthly performance since the early 2000s. ^[28]
On Friday, 21 November, the stock dropped another ~5–6% to trade just below $200, even as the broad market rallied, underlining how specifically AI‑related concerns are hitting the name. ^[29]

Behind the selloff:

Oracle has positioned itself at the center of enormous AI infrastructure deals with OpenAI and SoftBank, with various reports citing project sizes in the hundreds of billions of dollars over many years. ^[30]
The company is reportedly planning to take on an additional $38 billion in debt to fund AI data center expansion, adding to an existing debt pile of around $100+ billion. That has triggered a selloff in Oracle bonds and rising credit default swap prices. ^[31]

Investopedia and others have gone as far as calling Oracle a “poster child” for AI bubble concerns, noting that its decline has been steeper than in other high‑profile AI names like Meta, Palantir and AMD. ^[32]

Interestingly, some strategists now argue that an eventual stabilization in Oracle’s stock could be an early sign that the broader AI slump has run its course, making Oracle a sort of barometer for AI sentiment. ^[33]

6. The Bubble Debate: From Klarna to Zacks, Who’s Right?

This week also featured a sharp escalation in the “is AI a bubble?” debate.

Voices of Caution

Klarna founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski told the Financial Times he is “nervous” about the trillions of dollars being poured into AI data centers, citing OpenAI’s reported $1.5 trillion compute commitments and the $112 billion in Q3 2025 capex by Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft. ^[34]
He suggested he may hedge against AI‑infrastructure-heavy trades, comparing parts of the current market to the late‑1990s dot‑com boom. ^[35]
Google’s Pichai echoed similar worries about “irrationality” in AI markets in his BBC interview, even as he insisted Alphabet would survive any downturn. ^[36]

The “Not a Bubble (Yet)” Camp

On the other side, several strategists argued that AI bubble fears may be overblown:

Zacks Research published commentary suggesting the AI trade remains supported by strong earnings and secular demand and that corrections so far look like valuation resets rather than a full‑blown collapse. ^[37]
Another Zacks piece highlighted ETFs that allow investors to hedge AI downside or rotate into defensive sectors, implicitly framing AI volatility as a risk to manage, not a reason to abandon the theme entirely. ^[38]

For now, the market seems to be taking a middle path: rewarding real earnings power (Nvidia, Alphabet), while punishing companies whose AI stories rest more on enormous future promises and leverage (Oracle, some high‑growth names).

7. Mid‑Cap & Niche AI Stocks: Palantir, Tempus AI and Friends

Beyond the mega‑caps, several AI‑focused names also made news between 16–21 November.

Palantir: Still a “Monster” AI Stock, But Momentum Is Choppy

Palantir shares are up roughly 130–160% in 2025 and over the past year, depending on the source, making it one of the standout AI software plays of the cycle. ^[39]
At the same time, Palantir is down about 16% from its early‑November high, as profit‑taking and AI valuation worries hit high‑flyers especially hard. ^[40]
This week also saw headlines about billionaires trimming Palantir positions while rotating into newer IPOs, even as bullish analysts continued to tout the company’s AI defense and government contracts. ^[41]
Separately, Fox News Media announced a partnership with Palantir to build custom AI newsroom tools, including a “digital twin” of its operations — a reminder of how deeply Palantir is embedding itself into real‑world, recurring AI workflows. ^[42]

Taken together, Palantir remains a symbol of AI enthusiasm, but also a prime candidate for volatility whenever sentiment swings.

Tempus AI: Precision Medicine Darling With Insider Selling

Healthcare‑AI player Tempus AI (TEM) also drew attention:

One analysis highlighted that by 21 November, Tempus shares had climbed to about $70, delivering roughly an 87% gain in 10 months versus an early‑year “undervalued” call. ^[43]
At the same time, filings showed insider selling, with both the CEO and an EVP offloading thousands of shares this week, which some investors read as simple profit‑taking after a strong run. ^[44]
Tempus also announced a new collaboration in follicular lymphoma research with a specialized foundation, underscoring its strategy of using AI for precision oncology. ^[45]

Tempus illustrates a recurring AI theme: huge upside in niche verticals (like medical AI), but also heightened scrutiny of valuations and insider behavior.

Smaller AI Names & Screens

Screeners and listicles this week also spotlighted:

BigBear.ai, Tempus AI and Hut 8 among “top AI stocks to watch now.” ^[46]
Broader “high‑growth tech and AI” baskets that mix U.S. and international AI‑driven companies, signaling that AI exposure is spreading beyond the obvious mega‑cap names. ^[47]

8. AI ETFs and Hedging: Positioning for Bubble or Boom

As volatility in AI stocks surged, attention shifted to how to trade—or hedge—the AI theme rather than just which single name to buy.

Zacks and Nasdaq‑syndicated research this week pointed to: ^[48]

TAIL – a tail‑risk ETF that can benefit from market drawdowns.
HDGE – an actively managed short fund targeting overvalued large caps.
PGHY and XLV – income and healthcare ETFs that may act as more defensive ballast compared to frothy AI growth names.

These commentaries frame AI not as a binary “bubble vs. no bubble” call, but as a risk factor to be sized and hedged, especially for investors heavily concentrated in mega‑cap tech.

9. Key Takeaways for AI Stock Investors Heading Into Next Week

Putting all of this together, here are the key lessons from 16–21 November for anyone following AI stocks:

Earnings still matter — a lot.
Nvidia’s numbers show that AI demand in the data center is real and massive, not just hype on a slide deck. Alphabet’s Gemini 3 launch and ensuing rally underscore that differentiated AI products can still move stocks materially. ^[49]
Valuations and capital intensity now share center stage.
Oracle’s collapse and bond selloff demonstrate that markets are increasingly penalizing AI strategies that rely on huge, debt‑funded infrastructure bets without clear line of sight to profits. ^[50]
Mega‑deals no longer guarantee mega‑rallies.
The Anthropic pact shows that even a $15 billion AI deal involving Nvidia and Microsoft can coincide with a market selloff when investors are nervous about bubbles and Fed policy. ^[51]
The AI trade is fragmenting.
Mid‑cap and niche AI names like Palantir and Tempus AI are moving on idiosyncratic news — partnerships, insider selling, sector rotations — rather than just following Nvidia tick‑for‑tick. ^[52]
Hedging and diversification are back in fashion.
The rise in AI‑related ETF coverage and volatility‑hedging strategies suggests sophisticated investors are staying in the AI theme, but are more actively managing risk. ^[53]
Macro still matters.
Friday’s rally, driven largely by renewed rate‑cut hopes, was a reminder that Fed policy can overshadow even the flashiest AI headlines in the short term. ^[54]

10. What to Watch After 22 November 2025

Looking ahead beyond this week’s AI stock news:

Oracle’s next moves – Any change in its AI capex plans or debt strategy could influence sentiment across the entire AI infrastructure trade. ^[55]
Follow‑through on Nvidia’s guidance – Investors will be watching early signs of whether that $65 billion Q4 forecast holds up amid reports of “sold‑out” GPUs and potential export rule tweaks. ^[56]
Anthropic’s eventual valuation and product traction – As more details of the funding round emerge, they’ll shape views on whether private AI valuations are sustainable. ^[57]
Regulatory and energy headlines – AI’s massive power and chip demand could trigger new constraints or incentives that materially change the economics for leading AI stocks. ^[58]

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and news purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Always do your own research or consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.