New York, February 19, 2026, 14:21 EST — Regular session
Nvidia (NVDA) slipped $1.29, or 0.7%, to $186.69 in early afternoon trading Thursday, surrendering part of Wednesday’s bounce. Shares moved in a range from $185.69 to $188.41. Volume hovered around 82 million shares.
Nvidia’s slip looms large—it’s the bellwether for the AI trade, and right now, investors are on edge, weighing whether the next move comes higher or lower ahead of its results next week. The retreat in the shares also highlights just how fast market attention flips from customer wins to whatever numbers come next.
Semiconductor names took a hit, dragging the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index down 0.7% while broader markets edged lower. “It’s just an over-reaction,” said Max Wasserman, founder and senior portfolio manager at Miramar Capital, discussing the AI-associated volatility. Reuters
Nvidia climbed 1.6% Wednesday, following news of a multi-year agreement to supply Meta Platforms with millions of AI chips—both current models and those still in the pipeline. “They were expensive and they’ve gotten cheaper,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird, referring to the recent pullback in megacap tech. Reuters
Nvidia stated in a press release that its collaboration with Meta covers CPUs, networking hardware, and “millions” of Blackwell and Rubin GPUs—the core chips behind today’s AI model development and deployment. “No one deploys AI at Meta’s scale,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg added the company now plans to broaden the partnership, building clusters with Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform. NVIDIA Newsroom
Earlier this week, Nvidia said its deal with Meta covers Grace and Vera CPUs as well—bringing those chips into direct competition with server offerings from Intel and AMD. Ian Buck, who oversees hyperscale and high-performance computing at Nvidia, said Meta already put Vera through its paces, and “the results look very promising.” Reuters
Nvidia disclosed five U.S. equity stakes as of Dec. 31 in its latest 13F, according to an SEC filing this week. The list: CoreWeave, Intel, Nokia, Synopsys, and Nebius Group. Large managers file 13Fs each quarter to report certain U.S.-listed holdings.
Nvidia’s set to hold its earnings call on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET), according to the company. The fourth-quarter and fiscal-year 2026 numbers are coming, with CFO Colette Kress scheduled to release written commentary just ahead of the call—expect that after the results drop around 1:20 p.m. PT.
Bulls face one clear risk here: expectations are already high heading into the Feb. 25 report. This stock, when guidance falls short of what the market wants, tends to react in a big way. If the rollout of new products stalls, or if there’s even a suggestion that major AI clients are reining in budgets, shares could take another hit.
Right now, eyes turn to Feb. 25. It’s not just about headline numbers this time—Nvidia’s guidance, its comments on demand from hyperscale players like Meta, and any word on Blackwell rollout speed, plus timing for Rubin and Vera, all have potential to move the needle.
