New York, Jan 6, 2026, 14:02 ET — Regular session
- Nvidia steady after CFO says U.S. is “working feverishly” on China export licenses for H200 chips
- AMD falls after CES AI chip unveiling and fresh OpenAI partnership detail
- Traders look to Friday’s U.S. jobs report for the next rates cue
Nvidia shares were little changed on Tuesday after Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said U.S. officials were “working feverishly” on export licenses needed for the company to ship its H200 data-center chips to China, but timing remains unclear. Nvidia was up about 0.1% at $188.25 in afternoon trading. Reuters
The remarks and product rollouts at the CES trade show have put a spotlight back on AI chip supply, export rules and the pace of data-center spending — variables that can swing expectations for 2026 earnings. The broader market was modestly higher as investors positioned for Friday’s U.S. jobs report, which can shape the Federal Reserve’s rate path and, by extension, the appetite for big-ticket AI infrastructure.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has used CES to lay out details of the company’s next “Vera Rubin” platform, which he said is in full production and due later this year, including a flagship server configuration with 72 graphics processors and 36 central processors. He said the system improves “token” output — tokens are the basic chunks of text that AI models process — by about 10 times, and touted networking switches using “co-packaged optics,” a design that builds optical links into the switch hardware to move more data between machines. Broadcom, which competes in parts of the networking stack, was up about 1.2% at $347.51. Reuters
Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su, also speaking at CES, showcased MI455 processors aimed at server racks and introduced the MI440X as a more enterprise-friendly option for “on-premise” deployments — meaning AI systems run inside a company’s own data center rather than in the cloud. Su previewed the MI500 line for 2027 and said it would deliver 1,000 times the performance of an older version, while OpenAI President Greg Brockman appeared on stage to underline how heavily AI developers depend on new chip capacity. AMD fell about 3.3% to $213.79. Reuters
Some investors also took Huang’s efficiency claims as a warning for other parts of the AI buildout. Barclays analyst Julian Mitchell wrote that “given the primacy of Nvidia to the whole AI ecosystem, one should not take their comments lightly,” after Huang said new systems could sharply reduce data-center cooling needs — a point that hit shares of several cooling and HVAC firms. Reuters
But the AI trade still has clear fault lines. U.S. licensing decisions for China-bound chips remain a near-term swing factor for Nvidia, and competition is rising as rivals push new accelerators and big cloud customers develop more in-house silicon, potentially pressuring pricing and market share.
The next immediate catalyst for the wider tape is the U.S. Employment Situation report for December 2025, due at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday, Jan. 9, followed by inflation data next week. For AI chip stocks, traders will also be watching for any updates on Nvidia’s export-license timeline and early customer rollout details tied to Rubin systems.
