Semiconductor shares were mixed in Monday trading. Nvidia down 2%; Wolfspeed up 7%; Intel, AMD, Micron up 3%; TSMC, ARM up 1%.
Nvidia stock was falling early Monday amid questions about the chip maker's commitment for a major investment in OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT.
The focus is on Nvidia's relationship with OpenAI. A deal for Nvidia to invest as much as $100 billion in the artificial-intelligence company has "stalled" since it was announced in September, The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Any suggestion that Nvidia has doubts over the future of OpenAI could have major repercussions for the AI trade as a whole. OpenAI has committed to roughly $1.4 trillion in spending and has major cloud-computing and chip deals with companies including Microsoft, Oracle, CoreWeave, Advanced Micro Devices, and Broadcom.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has expressed concerns about the competition OpenAI faces from the likes of Google and Anthropic and stressed that the investment agreement is not binding, according to the Journal.
Nvidia didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Barron's early on Monday. However, Huang told reporters in Taipei on Saturday that the company would be involved in OpenAI's latest funding round and potentially make its largest investment ever.
That would suggest Nvidia intends to invest more in OpenAI than the $20 billion it reportedly spent to license technology from AI chip start-up Groq, which is the company's biggest single investment so far.
OpenAI is currently valued at around $500 billion and its executives have said it reached more than $20 billion in annualized revenue last year. CEO Sam Altman has suggested it could reach $100 billion in annual revenue by 2027.
OpenAI is reportedly preparing for a public listing as soon as the fourth quarter of this year and pursuing a fund-raising round of up to $100 billion at a potential valuation of $830 billion ahead of the initial public offering. Nvidia is considering putting in up to $30 billion in OpenAI's fund-raising round, the technology-focused news outlet The Information reported previously.