New York, Feb 4, 2026, 09:32 ET — Regular session
Nvidia Corp shares dropped $5.24, or 2.8%, to $180.34 in early Wednesday trading, deepening the slump for the stock at the center of the AI surge.
This matters because Nvidia is central to data-center spending, and investors have shown they’re quick to react when there’s any sign the AI buildout might stall on the profit front. Whenever doubts creep in about “who wins” from AI, Nvidia often feels the brunt first.
Shares fell 2.8% Tuesday amid a broader selloff in software and data-analytics stocks following Anthropic’s launch of plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent, designed to automate legal and other white-collar tasks. “Sometimes the market just shoots first and asks questions later,” said Mike Archibald, portfolio manager at AGF Investments. Reuters
That nervousness spilled over into Wednesday. J.P. Morgan analyst Toby Ogg warned investors were “being sentenced before trial” as they scrambled to protect portfolios from AI disruption. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang dismissed the notion that AI would replace software as “illogical,” Reuters reported. Reuters
Nvidia’s own OpenAI saga hasn’t helped matters. On Monday, Reuters reported that OpenAI was dissatisfied with some of Nvidia’s latest chips and has been exploring alternatives for inference—the stage where a trained AI model generates an output—since last year. Nvidia pushed back, saying customers choose its gear for inference due to performance and overall cost of ownership. OpenAI, for its part, confirmed it still depends on Nvidia for most of its inference fleet.
Reuters reported Tuesday that Nvidia is close to sealing a deal to invest roughly $20 billion in OpenAI’s newest funding round, though nothing is set in stone yet. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman praised Nvidia for making “the best AI chips in the world” and said OpenAI aims to remain a “gigantic customer for a very long time.” Reuters
Huang told CNBC that Nvidia plans to back OpenAI’s next funding round and is open to putting money into a future IPO. Reuters reports that OpenAI is aiming to raise as much as $100 billion, valuing the company near $830 billion.
Chip stocks faced headwinds ahead of the opening bell as Advanced Micro Devices slashed its quarterly outlook, sending its shares down almost 7% in premarket action. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon noted that the near-term AI figures “are not really inflecting.” Reuters
Competition remains a slow-burn threat, but it’s picking up noise. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan announced plans to develop graphics processing units for data centers and brought on Qualcomm executive Eric Demmers to head the project.
Investors are gearing up for major tech earnings that could steer the next wave of AI investment. Alphabet is set to report on Wednesday, followed by Amazon on Thursday. Strategists note the market still wrestles with how accelerated AI tools might ripple through profits. “We’re seeing a lot of software companies across the spectrum get hit,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. Reuters
The risk for Nvidia shareholders is clear: if key clients start moving workloads off Nvidia gear, or if competitors make serious inroads in inference, that current premium might not hold. A drop in orders or shrinking margins would probably hit the stock quickly.
Nvidia’s upcoming earnings report is the next major event to watch. The company plans to reveal its fourth-quarter and fiscal-year 2026 results on Feb. 25. A conference call is scheduled for 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET).
