Benny, the mascot for the Chicago Bulls, performs during a break between the Bulls and the New Orleans Pelicans at the United Center on January 14, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois.

(Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Stocks rise despite steep losses in Nvidia as AI race revs up

“So goes Nvidia, so goes the market” was upended as stocks rose, even though the world’s largest publicly traded company was one of the worst performers in the S&P 500.

Tasha Matsumoto

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all climbed higher. Energy was the worst-performing sector ETF, as oil prices fell on news of a possible Ukraine-Russia peace deal.

The AI trade bifurcated today, with Alphabet rising on news that Google is in talks to sell “billions of dollars” of its custom AI chips to Meta, which had big ramifications for AI stocks:

The report suggests that insiders believe a more direct foray could allow Google to grab a market share in chips amounting to about 10% of Nvidia’s annual revenue, sending Nvidia down.
As OpenAI is seemingly getting bested by Google’s Gemini 3, companies with close relationships to the ChatGPT maker — like SoftBank, which is poised to own about 11% of the company, and Oracle and Advanced Micro Devices, both of whom have massive deals with OpenAI — all sank.
Broadcom, the custom chip specialist that partnered with Google, rose.

Stocks that moved higher:

As oil prices tanked amid reports that Ukraine has agreed to the framework of a possible peace deal with Russia, shares of major US airlines surged on oil’s price action, with discount carriers JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, and Frontier Airlines seeing the largest gains. The remaining members of the big four also rose, with United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines all up as well.
Kohl’s soared after hiking its full-year outlook again, and now expects a sales decline of 3.5% to 4% versus previous estimates of a 5% to 6% decline as the retailer rolls out more coupons.
Abercrombie & Fitch jumped after raising its full-year revenue outlook, helped by stronger sales at Hollister that are expected to last through the holiday season.
Best Buy topped Q3 expectations and raised its 2026 earnings-per-share and revenue outlook, as management expects holiday discounts to drive big tech upgrades.

Stocks that moved lower:

Burlington Stores was a weak spot among retailers that reported earnings today. Despite posting an EPS beat, revenue narrowly missed expectations and management pointed to early-quarter softness due to “unseasonably warm temperatures.”
Sandisk pared gains after an initial jump when it was announced that the flash memory card maker will join the S&P 500 on Friday, replacing advertising giant Interpublic Group, which is being acquired by Omnicom.
Alibaba ticked down, even as the e-commerce and cloud giant reported second-quarter sales above analysts’ estimates on “robust AI demand.”
Chinese EV maker Nio dipped after posting a narrower-than-expected Q3 loss.

Dell gives upbeat Q4 guidance, beats on Q3 earnings

Q3 revenue was a little light. Shares were roughly flat after-hours.

Matt Phillips1h

Luke Kawa

What the reaction to Google’s potential entry into selling chips tells us about the AI trade

Margins are meant to be attacked, customer quality matters, and focus on the size of the pie.

A 'Google AI' branding is lit up with LED light at their...

Markets are getting more concerned about Oracle’s AI data center debt

The price of insuring against Oracle defaulting on its growing debt load has spike massively since September.

Matt Phillips5h

FINAL BOSS

Inside Pfizer’s reset

ByJ.EdwardMoreno

TueNov 252025

Luke Kawa7h

It sucks to be close to OpenAI right now

There’s a common thread between what’s ailing some different parts of the AI trade right now:

A high-profile relationship with OpenAI is a millstone around your neck. The ChatGPT maker is seemingly getting bested by Google’s Gemini 3 (and knows it) while burning a lot of cash, with no end to the red ink in sight.

Such millstone-afflicted parties include:

Investing conglomerate SoftBank has tumbled 9.9% and 10.8% in its two most recent trading days in Japan. SoftBank is a useful way to express a view on how OpenAI is doing because the Masayoshi Son-led firm is poised to own about 11% of the company, and increases in its valuation have been a big driver of SoftBank’s growth in net income. SoftBank sold its entire $5.8 billion stake in Nvidia in October, likely to finance what it owes OpenAI to build its position in that privately held company.
Oracle has the dubious distinction of getting battered across two different asset classes thanks to OpenAI. Remember: traders loved Oracle’s massive cloud-revenue backlog in the abstract. When the specifics were revealed and much of that sales pipeline was down to a $300 billion deal with OpenAI, that was when the stock peaked. More recently, credit default swaps tied to Oracle’s debt have also widened significantly, as the company’s infrastructure build-out is launching to fulfill demand from OpenAI, a customer that’s considered to be significantly less creditworthy.
The AI chip business of Advanced Micro Devices had a major breakthrough in October, securing a deal to sell multiple generations of its flagship GPUs for “tens of billions” in revenue. But... OpenAI was once again the customer. This was quickly followed by a separate announcement that 50,000 of its AI chips would be deployed in data centers run by Oracle starting in the second half of next year, likely de facto representing a further enmeshing of its relationship with OpenAI.
Microsoft has a tighter partnership with and bigger equity position in OpenAI than SoftBank. On the other hand, it also has its own successful core business, which significantly dilutes any OpenAI “signal,” so to speak. It’s the second-worst publicly traded hyperscaler in November, down almost double digits and trailing only Oracle.