New York, February 25, 2026, 13:53 (ET) — Regular session
- Nvidia jumps out front in the AI-chip space, with earnings on deck after the bell.
- AMD’s deal with Meta throws a spotlight on the current race for limited AI computing resources—and the equity incentives that are starting to turn up in some of these agreements.
- Traders are scouring guidance to see if Big Tech’s AI spending continues to ramp up, rather than hitting a plateau.
Nvidia jumped 2.2% on Wednesday, lifting AI names and sending the Nasdaq to a two-week high as the market eyed the chip giant’s quarterly numbers due after the bell. By 11:44 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq had gained 1.07%, the S&P 500 moved up 0.67%, and the Philadelphia semiconductor index notched a record. S&P tech climbed 1.7%. Options priced in a roughly 5.6% post-earnings swing. “The lack of new news helped to stabilize markets globally,” BNY’s Bob Savage said, with traders also watching for results from Salesforce and Snowflake later in the day. (Reuters)
Next up: earnings, and they’re set to challenge a trade that’s fueled Wall Street’s rally—though things have gotten choppy this month. Investors keep flipping between piling into chip stocks on demand hopes and fretting that heavy spending could be getting ahead of itself.
Nvidia’s earnings, spotlighted by a Reuters piece Tuesday, have become something of a litmus test for gauging if profits keep pace with the big spending from its main clients—even as those cloud giants openly toy with rolling their own, less expensive chips. “People are so concerned about AI spending — whether we’re in a bubble,” said Ivana Delevska, chief investment officer at Spear Invest. Seaport Research Partners’ Jay Goldberg sounded a cautious note, arguing there’s “hard to see them delivering much upside” with TSMC’s production capacity tight. Nvidia, on the other hand, has said upside could materialize, conditionally, if export licenses open the door to more China sales. (Reuters)
AMD and Meta rolled out news Tuesday: their partnership is getting bigger, aiming to deploy as much as 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs. Initial shipments, enough for the first gigawatt, are scheduled to start in the back half of 2026. Lisa Su, AMD’s CEO, called it a move to “accelerat[e] one of the industry’s largest AI deployments.” Mark Zuckerberg, leading Meta, said it will help “diversify our compute.” The first phase? AMD said it would tap a custom Instinct GPU built on the MI450 architecture, with sixth-gen EPYC “Venice” CPUs alongside Helios rack-scale gear. (AMD)
AMD has granted Meta a performance-based warrant—according to an SEC filing—allowing the purchase of up to 160 million shares at just $0.01 apiece. Vesting happens in stages: Meta must hit hardware purchase and shipment milestones, starting with one gigawatt and scaling up to six gigawatts. There’s also a stock price component: the top tranche requires AMD to reach $600 per share. The warrant remains exercisable through Feb. 23, 2031. AMD specified that only Meta-controlled affiliates can receive any transfer, pending AMD’s approval. (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
AMD shares jumped more than 6% early Tuesday after news of the deal broke, Reuters reported. Nvidia edged down roughly 1%, while Broadcom dropped around 2%. Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, pointed out Meta is “locking in supply” and “diversifying away from a single vendor.” Still, the move to offer a 10% stake hinted AMD might be “struggling to generate organic demand,” he said. Dan Coatsworth at AJ Bell flagged renewed concerns about “circular transactions.” As for Meta’s infrastructure boss, Santosh Janardhan, he said the scale of the expansion means “all of the chip makers end up having sort of a seat at the table.” (Reuters)
Part of that spending is now moving to “inference”—actually running those trained AI models, generating answers, not just the initial training. This matters; it can alter which chips come out on top, and how quickly customers switch over to new suppliers.
Still, it’s a delicate balance for AI optimists. Should Nvidia signal any pause in customer demand, or if competition and supply chain issues worsen, chip stocks could quickly hand back recent gains. On top of that, warrant-linked contracts mean dilution remains an active concern.
Nvidia’s earnings and outlook hit after the bell Wednesday. Traders are tuning in for signals—either confirmation that AI spending is still firing, or a warning about a possible slowdown into next week.
