AMD slides as Wall Street warns of growing AI chip gap with rival Nvidia

SPDR S&P 500 ETF erased premarket losses to jump higher after core CPI inflation rose 0.2% month on month in December, slightly less than analysts had forecast.

Economists anticipated that headline and core CPI inflation (the latter of which strips out food and energy prices) would be up 0.3% month on month. Headline CPI did indeed rise 0.3% for the month.

The pricing of event contracts for December CPI implied that traders expected headline inflation to be up 0.3% month on month, with higher odds of a reading coming in above than below.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

The November CPI report showed that core inflation had cooled by much more than expected, with the annual rate decelerating to a 4.5-year low. However, that reading was flattered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ decision to assume housing-centric components were flat in October.

Annual core CPI inflation held steady at 2.6% in December, having been projected to tick up to 2.7%.

An Nvidia spokesperson offered a rebuttal to Reuters on Tuesday, saying the chip designer does not require full payment for H200 chips up front, as the outlet had written in a January 8 report.

President Trump had said on December 8 that Nvidia could ship H200s, its best chip from the Hopper generation, to China. Chinese regulators, however, would need to allow their companies to import these chips, at a time when the nation’s leadership is keenly interested in bolstering domestic alternatives.

Concerns over whether Chinese regulators would permit imports fueled Nvidia’s alleged payment strategy, per Reuters. But Nvidia has now told the outlet that it “would never require customers to pay for products they do not receive.”

Notably, the chip designer isn’t going on the record to contradict any of Reuters’ other recent reporting surrounding its H200 chips, which includes:

• Demand for H200s is extremely hot, with Chinese companies having already placed orders for 2 million in 2026.

• Nvidia is planning on selling these chips at around $27,000 apiece.

  • Put those two together and that’s a $54 billion revenue opportunity.

• Nvidia plans to begin sending its H200 GPUs (which it holds in inventory) to China by mid-February.

• The world’s most valuable company has asked TSMC to boost production of these chips.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that China plans to allow purchases of H200s “as soon as this quarter.”