Nvidia, the asset manager, had a massive Q2 thanks to CoreWeave’s rally

Nvidia made over $26 billion in net income in its second quarter, putting it third among S&P 500 companies as of their most recent quarterly filing and trailing only Alphabet and Microsoft.

However, if you zeroed in on just Nvidia’s de facto “asset management” arm — which is included under “net other income” — that division would be one of the 50 most profitable companies in the benchmark US index, ahead of the likes of IBM and Caterpillar and just barely trailing McDonald’s.

“Net other income for the second quarter was $2.2 billion, primarily driven by gains in a publicly-held equity security,” according to the CFO commentary accompanying the second-quarter results.

Hmmmm. “A publicly-held equity security”...

To translate: that’s Nvidia’s position in CoreWeave! The AI darling, which offers access to Nvidia’s GPUs, rose 175% during Nvidia’s fiscal Q2.

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Luke Kawa35m

Nvidia rebuts claim that it’s requiring full upfront payment from Chinese buyers of its H200 AI chips

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 claimed in a January 8 report.

President Trump had said that Nvidia could ship H200s, their best chip from the Hopper generation, to China on December 8. 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.”

Of note: 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.”

Tasha Matsumoto

13h

Stocks climb to a new high as traders shake off the threat to Fed independence

Stocks recovered from a rocky morning to set a new record closing high.

Luke Kawa, David Crowther

Mr. Sparkle

15h

What’s the most followed TikToker worth?

A company tied to most followed TikToker Khaby Lame has been purchased for $975 million, and on paper, the Senegalese-Italian influencer’s position is worth way more than that. On paper.

Matt Phillips17h

Citi upgrades Palantir to “buy,” citing recent conversations with CIOs

Citi analysts hit the buy button on Palantir Technologies Monday, citing a strong outlook for growth both in Palantir’s large government contracting and defense business as well as its rapidly growing commercial division, which sells software to corporations to help them better use AI technology.

“Our upgrade is premised on our view that 2026 is poised to be another year of significant positive estimate revisions, with recent CIO [chief information officer] + industry conversations suggesting AI budget and use cases are accelerating in the enterprise. We also see significant tailwinds in the Government driven by accelerating defense budgets and modernization urgency.”

The bank, which had a “neutral” rating on the stock since February 2024, also cited chatter at its recent IT software conference, where participants talked up the cost savings generated by Palantir’s AI Platform software and noted that its Q4 IT survey on software budgets showed an incremental rise in budgets “especially for dedicated AI workloads and data project prioritization.”

“We expect PLTR, with its Foundry and AIP platform, to be one of the key Data Analytics/ AI vendors that could see further tailwind into numbers,” Citi analysts wrote.

Palantir is expected to report Q4 results on February 18.

But it’s an open question whether the surging growth Citi now sees for the company has already been priced in for the stock. The shares have risen close to 1,000% over the last two years, pushing standard measures of valuation to arguably lunatic levels.

Luke Kawa19h

Chinese food delivery stocks soar as regulatory probe into price wars may save them from themselves

If there’s one thing Chinese companies are known for, it’s ruthless competition on price to make sure the nation’s products are attractive on global markets. Oftentimes, this comes with implicit or explicit state support for favored industries, which draws the ire of other countries.

Production > profitability is a pretty good shorthand for how China attempts to conquer tradable goods (see: electric vehicles). However, when it comes to consumer-oriented services, policymakers clearly don’t feel the same way.

Alibaba, Meituan, andJD.com are all soaring after the Chinese State Council’s anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition committee said it’s investigating the food delivery sector over practices that are potentially distorting the market and weighing on brick-and-mortar firms.

These tech giants have been investing heavily in their food delivery capabilities, including via subsidies and incentives. Effectively, the market reaction here is that traders believe regulators are saving these companies from themselves.

A commentary in the state-run People’s Daily published midyear 2025, when JD.com announced plans to bolster its food delivery business, argued that there will be no “winners” in these price wars, which would lead to irrational consumption.

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