Megacap tech and the AI trade power US stocks to fresh records

Nvidia extended gains in early trading after announcing an updated edition of its open models, the Nemotron 3.

This family of models comes in three “sizes” — Nano (available today), Super, and Ultra (both expected to be launched in the first half of next year). These sizes reflect the different parameters of each model, which govern the complexity of a given request it can handle.

The company highlighted the flexibility benefits of these models, saying they can be integrated with their proprietary counterparts to produce cost savings.

“As multi-agent AI systems expand, developers are increasingly relying on proprietary models for state-of-the-art reasoning while using more efficient and customizable open models to drive down costs,” per the press release. “Routing tasks between frontier-level models and Nemotron in a single workflow gives agents the most intelligence while optimizing tokenomics.”

This strong start of the week helps reverse a substantial run of underperformance for Nvidia versus its peers. It’s the only member of the VanEck Semiconductor ETF that’s declined since the S&P 500 closed at an intermediate bottom on November 20.

Last week, the chip designer closed at its lowest level versus this fund of 2025, falling below the trough seen in the wake of the DeepSeek freak-out, where nearly $600 billion in market cap was obliterated in a single session.

Opendoor is surging this morning after announcing that Lucas Matheson, CEO of Coinbase Canada, will be its next president.

Management changes have been a key catalyst for Opendoor Technologies as the online real estate company looks to reverse its fortunes. Shares booked a record one-day gain of nearly 80% on September 11, following its announcement that cofounders Keith Rabois and Eric Wu were rejoining the company to serve on its board of directors and that Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian would serve as CEO. Matheson worked at Shopify from 2016 to 2021, with his tenure overlapping with Nejatian’s for two years.

Per the press release, Matheson will “oversee Corporate Development, Financial Planning & Analysis, and emerging strategic initiatives, including the Company’s exploration of how blockchain technology and tokenization might create new pathways to homeownership.”

Traders have enthusiastically greeted previous rumors and reports that Opendoor would pursue real estate tokenization, as this would seem to de-risk the inventory of homes it holds on its balance sheet by enhancing the liquidity for those assets, freeing up the company to go after even higher volumes.

In addition, Opendoor also said that Christy Schwartz would be its permanent CFO, after she was appointed to that position on an interim basis in September.

“We looked everywhere,” Nejatian said in the press release. “We talked to CFOs from nearly every sector. And we realized the person with the deepest command of our business, the trust of every team, and the bias for action we need was already here.”

ServiceNow is deep in the red in premarket trading Monday after Bloomberg reported that the software company is in “advanced talks” to buy cybersecurity firm Armis for up to $7 billion, citing people familiar with the situation.

In early November, a pre-IPO funding round valued Armis at $6.1 billion. The firm touts United Airlines, Mondelez, “3 of 5 largest retailers in the US, 3 out of 5 largest banks and many more” as customers, and said in August that it had surpassed $300 million in annual recurring revenue.

A stake in Armis is a hot commodity. CEO Yevgeny Dibrov told Bloomberg in September that it was weighing six to seven offers from investors — one of whom was reported to be private equity firm Thoma Bravo — that were looking to take a position in the firm.

“ServiceNow’s possible acquisition of Armis, as reported by Bloomberg News, would help its IT asset management practice, which complements its much larger IT service management business,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Anurag Rana and Andrew Girard wrote. “Though ServiceNow isn’t a pure-play cybersecurity vendor, Armis could help provide bundled services amid rising threats, especially with increased use of LLMs.” However, they also noted that “the reported deal price of $7 billion to gain $300 million in annualized recurring revenue seems expensive.”

Along with this news, KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader also downgraded shares of ServiceNow to “underweight” from “sector weight,” with a price target of $775, warning that the software company is facing stiff competition from Microsoft’s Agent 365.

Last one to leave the Roomba, please turn off the lights.

iRobot, maker of robotic vacuums and other cleaning products, announced on Sunday that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a restructuring agreement that would see 100% of the company’s equity interests be acquired by its secured lender and its primary contract manufacturer, Shenzhen PICEA Robotics Co., Ltd., and Santrum Hong Kong Co., Limited.

IRBT shares have sunk more than 80% since Friday’s close to hover around the $0.74 level, per Bloomberg data as of 6:18 a.m. ET.

In a press release, the company said that this move “will delever the Company’s balance sheet and enable iRobot to continue operating in the ordinary course, pursue its product development roadmap, and maintain its global footprint.”

Shares of iRobot recently booked their biggest one-day gain on record, rising 74% on December 3 on the heels of a Politico report that the Trump administration was planning on going “all in” to boost the robotics industry.

That report spurred a wave of buying from traders who were presumably looking to get exposure to the theme, enticed by the name of a company that has “robot” in it, and less than fully versed on its financial position. Back in March, management had warned investors that “there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least 12 months.”

Volumes exceeded 228 million on December 3, also far and away a daily record for the stock.