Stock Market Today (Aug. 26, 2026): S&P 500 futures edge lower ahead Nvidia earnings

NVIDIA (NVDA) partnered with six financial firms, including Blackstone (BX), to launch 'compute financing platforms' aiming to raise over $500 billion for AI infrastructure. NVIDIA may backstop 25% of deals. Blackstone's president sees AI compute as a financeable asset class. NVIDIA shares fell after the announcement, erasing $70 billion in market value, amid skepticism about AI spending.

Nvidia presented the Groq 3 LPX architecture at Hot Chips 2026, showcasing its first third-party benchmark. The LP30-based rack, already in production, achieved 3,431 tokens per second on a 100K-context Gemma 4 31B workload. Nvidia acquired Groq's technology for $20 billion in 2025, integrating it into its product lineup.

US stock futures were flat Wednesday, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures slightly down, as markets awaited Nvidia's earnings report and assessed the latest PCE inflation data. The core PCE index rose 3.3% in July, meeting expectations. Investors are also watching for Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's speech at the Jackson Hole gathering. Abercrombie & Fitch raised its guidance, boosting its shares 13%.

Taiwanese prosecutors indicted an Nvidia manager for allegedly smuggling AI chips to China via Japan and Indonesia, evading U.S. trade restrictions. Nvidia's CEO denies evidence of such activity, but U.S. officials claim billions in Nvidia hardware entered China. According to Bloomberg, the case involves Nvidia Hong Kong Holdings Ltd.'s Taiwan branch.

NVIDIA paid $6 billion to license software and hire engineers from Poolside, avoiding an acquisition. Poolside's founders remain, and the deal benefits investors. NVIDIA has used this strategy before, acquiring capabilities without taking on liabilities. Hugging Face is reportedly seeking a $13 billion sale, contrasting with Poolside's unbundled deal. Stability AI raised $76 million from various partners. Ukraine licensed ground-robot designs to Finland and shared battlefield data with the UK vi

OpenAI unveiled its Jalapeño AI chip, claiming industry-leading speed and efficiency. Analysts suggest it poses a threat to Nvidia's margins in inference, a growing field. OpenAI developed the chip with Broadcom, aiming to deploy it by year-end. Nvidia remains dominant in AI compute, but custom chips from tech giants like Google, AWS, and Meta are gaining ground. OpenAI's chip could reduce its reliance on Nvidia for inference workloads.