New York, February 3, 2026, 16:18 EST — After-hours trading
- After a volatile day for AI-related stocks, Nvidia shares slipped in late trading.
- Jensen Huang confirmed plans to pour more investment into OpenAI and mentioned Nvidia might explore taking a stake in its eventual IPO.
- Big-tech earnings grab investors’ attention this week, with Nvidia’s Feb. 25 report eyed closely for clues on demand and margins.
Nvidia shares slipped 2.8% to $180.28 in after-hours trading Tuesday, following an intraday range from $176.24 to $187.19. More than 200 million shares changed hands.
This shift is crucial as investors grow more selective about the post-initial surge in AI system development. Focus is turning to the suppliers of the next generation of compute power — and if major buyers will stick with the same chips once workloads transition from training models to deploying them.
Huang told CNBC that Nvidia plans to back OpenAI in its upcoming funding round and also during its future IPO. “We will invest in the next round,” he stated firmly. “There is no question about that.” (Reuters)
A report Monday revealed OpenAI’s dissatisfaction with some of Nvidia’s latest AI chips, prompting the company to explore other options for “inference” — the real-time generation of answers by a trained AI model, sources said. OpenAI has considered deals with Advanced Micro Devices and startups Cerebras and Groq, according to the report. Still, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman praised Nvidia’s products as “the best AI chips in the world” and expressed hope to remain a “gigantic customer for a very long time.” (Reuters)
The mood tilted risk-off. Anthropic’s rollout of new plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent—designed to automate tasks in legal, sales, marketing, and data analysis—triggered a selloff in software and data-analytics stocks, rattling parts of the AI sector, according to investors. “Sometimes the market just shoots first and asks questions later,” said Mike Archibald of AGF Investments. Schroders analyst Jonathan McMullan cautioned that “the speed of AI advancement makes long-term valuations harder to defend.” (Reuters)
U.S. stocks closed lower, with the S&P 500 slipping 0.85%, the Nasdaq Composite dropping 1.42%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.35%, based on preliminary figures. Alphabet is scheduled to report earnings on Wednesday, followed by Amazon on Thursday. AMD was set to release its results after Tuesday’s closing bell. (Reuters)
The downside risk for Nvidia is sharper now than a few months back: if major AI customers accelerate moves to diversify away from Nvidia gear for inference, or if inference costs drop sharply, the stock could remain volatile—even if AI spending overall stays strong.
Nvidia’s upcoming earnings release is the next major event to watch. The company will unveil its fourth-quarter and fiscal 2026 financial results on February 25. A conference call will follow at 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET). (Nvidia)
