New York, Feb 18, 2026, 10:02 AM EST — Regular session
- Nvidia climbed roughly 2% in early trading following news of its multiyear supply agreement with Meta.
- The deal spans millions of Blackwell chips and future Rubin AI processors, along with Grace and Vera CPUs and networking hardware.
- Nvidia’s results on Feb. 25 are up next, with investors watching for signals on demand, pricing, and delivery.
Nvidia Corp shares climbed Wednesday after the chipmaker announced a multiyear agreement to provide Meta Platforms with millions of AI chips. The news helped dispel worries about major clients potentially cutting back on orders.
The deal arrives while investors clamor for evidence that the AI boom among “hyperscalers”—those massive data-center players—isn’t losing steam. Nvidia’s efforts to branch out from GPUs, moving deeper into CPUs and networking, now take center stage, with the company aiming to tighten its hold in those segments.
Nvidia shares climbed 2% to $188.72. Meta slipped roughly 1%. Among chipmakers, Advanced Micro Devices dropped about 3%. Intel and Broadcom edged down as well.
Nvidia’s agreement covers both its existing Blackwell chips and the upcoming Rubin lineup, plus standalone Grace and Vera central processors. The company kept the financial details under wraps, but one analyst pegged the deal’s potential value at $50 billion. (Reuters)
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made it clear: “No one deploys AI at Meta’s scale.” He highlighted joint efforts spanning CPUs, GPUs, and networking. (NVIDIA Newsroom)
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the firms plan to “build leading-edge clusters” on Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform. (Facebook)
Traders are watching the CPU story closely. Nvidia’s Grace and Vera chips use Arm architecture, taking aim at Intel and AMD’s data-center offerings. The company is talking up efficiency improvements for day-to-day tasks like database management.
Ian Buck, who oversees Nvidia’s hyperscale and high-performance computing division, said Grace is able to handle certain routine workloads using “half the power.” He expects Vera to deliver even bigger efficiency jumps. “The results look very promising,” Buck told Reuters. (Reuters)
It’s a complicated picture. Meta has been working on in-house AI chips and has also talked with Google about tapping its Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs—those specialized chips for AI tasks. Nvidia, for its part, faces the issue of heavy reliance on a handful of buyers: in the latest fiscal quarter, just four customers made up 61% of Nvidia’s revenue. (Reuters)
Wednesday’s announcement still leaves the big question: will these commitments stick if budgets get squeezed, or if customers push for more in-house chip projects? Details on order size, delivery schedules, and profit margins haven’t been disclosed.
Nvidia’s earnings are on deck for Feb. 25, dropping after the U.S. close. Investors will be zeroed in on any hints about demand for Blackwell, updates on Rubin’s rollout, and whether CPUs are gaining ground with major cloud players. (NVIDIA Newsroom)
