New York, Feb 17, 2026, 10:01 ET — Regular session
Nvidia Corporation shares were down 1.3% at $180.46 in morning trade on Tuesday, as investors stayed cautious on the crowded AI-chip trade after a long weekend. The stock has traded between $180.29 and $183.33 so far.
The pullback matters because Nvidia has become the market’s clearest proxy for spending on AI data centers — and for how fast that spending turns into profits. The world’s most valuable tech stocks have lost market value this year as investors question whether heavy AI investment will deliver returns quickly enough to justify valuations, Reuters reported on Monday. (Investing)
With Nvidia set to report results next week, traders are hunting for clues on demand and margins as customers shift from training models to inference — running AI models in production rather than building them. Nvidia on Monday pointed to benchmark data it cited showing its Blackwell Ultra systems delivering up to 50 times higher throughput per megawatt — work done per unit of electricity — and sharply lower “cost per token,” or cost per unit of AI text processed, versus its prior Hopper generation. (NVIDIA Blog)
Citi on Tuesday told investors to add to positions, citing product momentum and improving demand visibility into 2027. Analyst Atif Malik forecast January-quarter revenue of $67 billion versus a Street consensus of $65.6 billion, and April-quarter sales guidance of $73 billion against $71.6 billion. Citi maintained a Buy rating and $270 target price, saying the stock “looks attractive” for the second half. (Investing)
Macro nerves are not helping. Reuters reported that worries about AI-driven disruption and competition from Chinese developers have rattled confidence, after Alibaba unveiled its Qwen 3.5 model; “you are seeing a rebalance… it’s natural,” said Stash Graham, CIO at Graham Capital Wealth Management. (Investing)
Chip peers also slipped in early trade, with Advanced Micro Devices down 3.1%, Broadcom off 1.7% and Taiwan Semiconductor’s U.S.-listed shares down 1.8%.
Nvidia’s annual GTC developer conference runs March 16-19 in San Jose, according to the company’s website, and it has become another checkpoint for investors tracking its product cadence. (NVIDIA)
But the bar is high. Any sign that orders are cooling, or that margins will be squeezed as new systems roll out, could sharpen the selloff — especially if the biggest cloud buyers keep pressing on cost and power use.
Nvidia will publish its fourth-quarter and fiscal-year results on Feb. 25 and hold a conference call at 2 p.m. PT, the company said. It plans to post written commentary from CFO Colette Kress shortly after results are released. (Nvidia)
