New York, May 26, 2026, 18:01 (EDT)
Nvidia stock slipped Tuesday, while the AI rally lifted both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to fresh record closes. Wall Street is again asking how much more upside the top AI chipmaker can deliver.
Nvidia finished regular trading at $214.86, off 55 cents, having moved between $212.04 and $218.45. The company’s market cap stayed around $5.24 trillion. With Nvidia this big, small price swings can shift big indexes.
The move is getting attention now because the stock isn’t just reacting to a single earnings report. It’s turned into a measure of how much appetite investors still have for artificial-intelligence infrastructure stocks after the sector’s sharp rally.
Nvidia’s strength set the tone for the broader market. The S&P 500 added 0.61% and the Nasdaq climbed 1.19%. The Philadelphia semiconductor index hit another record. Micron jumped 19%, Qualcomm rose around 4.5%, Marvell added 6%. Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management, said this year’s tech rally looked “reminiscent of the boom at the end of the 1990s.” Reuters
Nvidia turned in first-quarter revenue of $81.6 billion, up 85% from last year. Data Center revenue was $75.2 billion, a 92% increase. The company guided for $91 billion in second-quarter revenue, give or take 2%, and announced another $80 billion for buybacks. The quarterly dividend goes up to 25 cents per share. CEO Jensen Huang said, “Agentic AI has arrived,” describing software that acts more independently of humans. NVIDIA Newsroom
Nvidia options were pricing in a move of about 6.5% after earnings, which would mean $350 billion in market value. Matt Amberson, who runs ORATS, told Reuters that investors looked “complacent about AI/capex,” referring to capital expenditure spending. Reuters
China is still the wild card for Nvidia. CEO Jensen Huang said the company’s $200 billion CPU market forecast covers China, and called it “terrific” if H200 shipments could go there. But according to Reuters, no H200 chips have shipped to China yet, despite U.S. licenses.
But the downside risk is easy to see. Nvidia’s filing showed China, including Hong Kong, brought in $4.55 billion in first-quarter revenue, down from $9.66 billion last year. Three direct customers made up 21%, 17%, and 16% of total revenue. The company also flagged that future revenue could take a hit from data-center, energy, and capital limits. If export approvals stall out, major buyers pull back, or data-center projects hit power or funding problems, the stock’s premium could come under pressure fast.
Chip stocks got a selective bid. Buyers stayed with the sector, but Nvidia didn’t lead this time. That’s a change after Nvidia’s big move.
So the next phase isn’t about AI demand — recent numbers say demand is there — but whether Nvidia keeps moving that demand into shipments, margins and cash as rivals and regulators close in.
