New York, February 22, 2026, 10:07 a.m. EST — Market closed
- NVIDIA ended Friday’s session roughly 1% higher, finishing at $189.82, with its earnings report set for Feb. 25.
- OpenAI is eyeing roughly $600 billion in compute investment by 2030, according to a source.
- Wall Street has its eye on Nvidia’s outlook and what CEO Jensen Huang says about AI spending plans.
Nvidia closed out Friday with a $1.82 gain, up roughly 1.0% to $189.82, after shares bounced in a $186 to $190 range. With U.S. markets closed Sunday, investors are left eyeing potential catalysts for the stock when trading picks up again Monday.
This week brings a pivotal moment: Nvidia’s quarterly earnings land Feb. 25. The chipmaker now sits at the center of the AI-stock frenzy, with investors watching closely to see if appetite for AI hardware is still running at the speed markets have built into prices.
That question is only growing as the largest tech players funnel billions into data centers and tell investors to be patient for payback. “Hyperscalers”—the big cloud names—usually spend in surges, and Nvidia’s remarks often sway sentiment on whether another buying spree is near or not.
OpenAI is eyeing total “compute” spending around $600 billion through 2030, according to a source with knowledge of the plans — that’s chip and data-center costs, in industry terms. The company is also setting the stage for a potential IPO that could fetch a valuation as high as $1 trillion, the source said. Nvidia is nearing completion on a $30 billion OpenAI investment, part of a funding push of more than $100 billion that may put OpenAI’s valuation close to $830 billion. 1
Chip shares ended the week with uneven moves. Advanced Micro Devices dropped roughly 1.6% Friday; Broadcom closed down 0.4%. Intel shed nearly 1.1%.
Nvidia plans a conference call for Feb. 25, set for 2 p.m. Pacific (5 p.m. Eastern), to go through its fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal 2026 results. The company also noted that written commentary from CFO Colette Kress will follow the results release, landing ahead of the call. 2
Citi’s Atif Malik is looking for Nvidia to post $67 billion in revenue for the January quarter, topping the consensus of $65.6 billion, and to forecast $73 billion for April—again, higher than the $71.6 billion Street view. “Most investors are looking past the earnings,” Malik noted. 3
Investors are on edge before the report, Reuters’ “Week Ahead” markets podcast said Sunday, as Nvidia’s AI spending climbs and the majority of revenue comes from just four customers. That kind of concentration means Chief Executive Jensen Huang’s comments on orders and data-center expansion will carry added significance. 4
The risk is clear enough: Should Nvidia’s forecast fall short or customers pause on data-center plans, the stock could reset in a hurry. That’s the reality when so much of the AI trade hinges on relentless growth. Another wrinkle: Investors are watching competition heat up in AI “inference,” the part where models run in the real world instead of being trained.
U.S. markets open Monday, and eyes go straight to Nvidia—can the stock stay above $190? Positioning could move ahead of Wednesday’s release. The real test: Nvidia’s earnings and its conference call, both landing after the U.S. close on Feb. 25.
