By Adam Clark

Nvidia stock is drifting as artificial intelligence roils the stock market. Earnings from rival Advanced Micro Devices underlined uncertainty over sales in China as the AI trade continued to hit markets.

Nvidia shares were down 1.6%, at $177.55, in early trading on Wednesday. The stock fell 2.8% during Tuesday's trading session.

AI seems more like a drag on the stock market than a boost recently, with the threat of new tools hitting software and legal-services stocks. But that isn't leading to a corresponding upturn for AI chip makers like Nvidia.

Investors appear to be skeptical as they wait for new catalysts. One of those could be significant chip sales in China -- but Nvidia's rival AMD said on Tuesday, alongside its earnings call, that shipments are still up in the air.

"We saw some [Chinese] revenue in Q4, and we're forecasting for about $100 million of revenue in Q1. We are not forecasting any additional revenue from China just because it's a very dynamic situation," AMD CEO Lisa Su told analysts.

Nvidia's own sales in China are still awaiting final approval from Washington following a national security review, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Previous reports have claimed Beijing has authorized Chinese firms, including Alibaba Group, to prepare orders for Nvidia's H200 chips. Chinese companies would be willing to buy around 1.5 million of the H200 chips, representing roughly $30 billion in revenue, according to KeyBanc analyst John Vinh. Nvidia has agreed to pass on a 25% cut of the sales to the U.S. government.

Separately, questions continue to swirl around Nvidia's mooted investment in ChatGPT-developer OpenAI. Nvidia is closing in on a deal to invest around $20 billion in OpenAI in the latter company's latest funding round, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Nvidia signed a letter of intent to invest as much as $100 billion in OpenAI last year, but Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has stressed it is not a binding commitment and the overall amount could be less.

OpenAI and Nvidia didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Barron's early on Wednesday.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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February 04, 2026 10:29 ET (15:29 GMT)

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