Nvidia stock traded higher on Thursday, supported by fresh signals of heavy spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure from Google-parent Alphabet, even as much of the broader technology sector came under pressure.
At the time of writing, Nvidia shares were up around 0.6%, outperforming major peers.
In contrast, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, and Advanced Micro Devices were down between 2% and 4%.
The broader market also weakened, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite each falling about 0.7%.
Investors have recently rotated out of high-growth names amid valuation concerns and uneven earnings results.
Alphabet’s capex guidance lifts AI suppliers
Nvidia’s relative strength followed Alphabet’s announcement of sharply higher capital expenditure guidance, which underscored sustained demand for AI-related infrastructure.
Alphabet said it expects capital spending of between $175 billion and $185 billion this year, up from $91 billion to $93 billion in 2025.
The company said the bulk of the investment will be directed toward artificial intelligence data centres and the chips required to power them.
Although Alphabet has developed its own tensor processing units, or TPUs, which compete with Nvidia’s graphics processing units, the company continues to offer both options to its cloud customers.
“We offer leading infrastructure for AI training and inference to our cloud customers with the industry’s widest variety of compute options, from our own seventh-generation Ironwood TPU to the latest Nvidia GPUs,” Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said on an earnings call.
Analysts said the scale of Alphabet’s planned investment reinforces expectations of sustained demand for high-performance computing hardware, benefiting suppliers such as Nvidia.
Goldman Sachs reiterates bullish view
Separately, Goldman Sachs reiterated its Buy rating on Nvidia in a research note published on Thursday, maintaining a price target of $250.
The investment bank said it expects a “beat-and-raise” quarter from the chipmaker, citing favourable supply and demand indicators across the industry. However, it noted that investor expectations are already elevated.
With Nvidia’s earnings report scheduled for February 25, Goldman said the stock’s near-term performance will depend largely on visibility into revenue growth in 2027, as much of the upside for 2026 appears to be priced in.
The firm pointed to Nvidia’s recent revenue growth of 65.2% over the past twelve months as evidence of its strong momentum.
Goldman also identified several potential catalysts for the first half of 2026, including continued upward revisions to hyperscaler capital expenditure plans extending into 2027 and rising confidence in demand from non-traditional customers such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
In addition, the bank highlighted strong results from large language models trained on Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture as a factor that could reinforce the company’s technological leadership.
Gaming chip plans face pressure
While Nvidia’s data centre business continues to benefit from surging AI investment, its gaming segment is facing headwinds.
According to reporting by The Information, Nvidia will not release a new gaming graphics card this year for the first time in its history.
The report said the decision reflects a global shortage of memory chips, as AI-related demand squeezes supply.
The company is also reportedly cutting production of its existing gaming chips as it prioritises higher-margin data centre products.
The development follows Micron Technology’s announcement in December that it plans to exit the consumer chip business, highlighting ongoing strains in parts of the semiconductor supply chain.
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