Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Posts Record Sales, But Musk’s NVIDIA (NVDA) Pledge Sinks the Stock

NVIDIA (NVDA) may ship its next-gen Rubin Ultra GPU with less memory (192GB-256GB) than initially planned (1TB), according to The Information. AMD (AMD) is confident in its Helios AI system, which ships later this year to major customers like Microsoft and Meta, and claims to have secured sufficient memory. Both companies are navigating a memory shortage in the AI chip market.

Etched, a startup founded by Harvard dropouts, reached a $21B valuation after securing $700M in funding led by Jane Street. The company claims its AI chips outperform Nvidia's in inference tasks, with faster processing times and lower energy use. Etched has signed over $1B in deals and poached talent from Nvidia, raising concerns about Nvidia's market dominance. However, analysts note Etched's early stage and Nvidia's broader product range.

Jefferies expects Nvidia (NVDA) to report $95B in Q2 revenue, exceeding estimates by $3B, driven by AI demand and the Vera Rubin product cycle. The firm forecasts Q3 revenue of $108B, $4.3B above consensus. Nvidia's market cap exceeds $5T, with shares up 17% YTD. Investors will watch Rubin shipments, margins, and AI financing commitments during the Aug. 26 earnings report.

Nvidia backs $105B in guarantees for OpenAI's Ohio AI data center, highlighting capital requirements for AI infrastructure. Pennsylvania sets new data center requirements, impacting power and zoning. Anthropic changes data retention policy after enterprise customer pushback. Google and Marvell expand AI chip partnership, with Google granted a $12.2B share purchase warrant.

SpaceX (SPCX) reported $7.81B revenue, beating estimates, but shares fell 8% due to $18.4B capital spending, mostly on AI. NVIDIA (NVDA) shares rose 2% as SpaceX pledged to use NVIDIA chips for AI data centers. Starlink revenue grew 66% to $4.29B, while AI revenue surged 250% to $2.56B.

Nvidia reduced its financing guarantee for an OpenAI data center in Ohio from up to $250 billion to less than $120 billion. The project, developed by SB Energy (SoftBank), involves partnerships with major financial firms. Nvidia will now guarantee financing for the first phase, with the rest considered later. Analysts note the shift reduces Nvidia's risk exposure.