Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang speaks at Nvidia Live at CES 2026, ahead of the annual Consumer Electronics Show on January 5, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
It’s a good day for the artificial intelligence field. New partnerships and earnings reports from AI companies lifted sentiment that had been weighed down by concerns that AI could hurt companies from software to real estate to logistics.
The biggest news was Nvidia’s earnings. The world’s most valuable company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results after the U.S. bell Wednesday, posting 75% revenue growth in its core data center business. Shares rose 1.4% in extended trading.
CEO Jensen Huang said in an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick that the demand for computing has become “unexpected” as AI technology advances rapidly.
When asked about the threat of AI to software, Huang said, “The market misunderstands.”
Describing it as “counterintuitive,” Huang said AI agents would replace these software tools rather than replace them.
“No company is going to provide a better service than ServiceNow. They’re going to come up with an agent that’s very finely tuned and optimized for the task of using the tools that they have,” he said, adding that AI “is going to help us out.”
The anticipated Nvidia report and Mr. Oppenheimer’s upgrade of fellow AI company Oracle appeared to ease investor concerns about AI-driven disruption, lifting U.S. markets on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 300 points, the S&P 500 rose 0.81% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.26%.
But Dan Niles, founder of Niles Investment Management, offered a cautious opinion. “People need to remember that everything tends to be overbuilt – railways, canals, the internet – so you know who the winners and losers are going to be. And I think that’s what the market is struggling with,” he said on “Squawk Box Asia” this morning.
He warned that “there are companies in the software field that will go down to zero.”
Signaling that concerns have not been completely dispelled, Salesforce on Wednesday gave a mixed outlook for first-quarter earnings, and its stock price fell nearly 5% in after-hours trading. However, the software maker’s fourth-quarter fiscal revenue rose 12% year-over-year, the fastest growth rate in two years.
CNBC Pro subscribers can watch the full interview with Jensen Huang.
—CNBC’s Anniek Bao, Becky Quick, Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this article.
What you need to know today
Thrive Capital poured about $1 billion into OpenAI in December at a valuation of $285 billion, people confirmed Wednesday. The venture capital firm has become one of the major financial backers of AI startups. The Wall Street Journal first reported on Thrive’s investment.
Nvidia and Oracle boost US market. Wall Street closed heavily on the back of Nvidia’s expected after-the-bell report and Oppenheimer’s upgrade of Oracle’s ratings. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average broke above the 59,000 yen mark for the first time, driven by the election of a central bank board whose policy stance is seen as dovish. Asian tech stocks also rose.
Big Tech signs pledge on data center power costs. It is scheduled for March 4, when President Trump will meet with major technology companies at the White House. White House press secretary Taylor Rogers told CNBC that the companies are committed to “build, install or purchase their own power supplies for new AI data centers.”
As the smartphone industry faces a global memory chip shortage, Samsung is launching the third installment of its “AI Phone” series. The Galaxy S26 series puts Alphabet’s Gemini artificial intelligence front and center, ahead of integration with Apple’s iPhone’s Siri.
(PRO) European tech stocks to watch after Nvidia prints. Nvidia’s strong guidance could boost Europe’s technology sector, particularly semiconductors and infrastructure, analysts said, noting that European tech stocks are most likely to respond.
And finally…
President Donald Trump walks past Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Brent Kavanaugh, and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett as he arrives for the State of the Union address at a joint session of Congress in Washington, DC, February 24, 2026.
Win McNamee | Getty Images News | Getty Images
President Trump insists trade deal will stay, but partners aren’t so sure
President Donald Trump defended his tariff policies in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, even though the Supreme Court’s decision invalidating the emergency tariffs caused new disruption to numerous trade deals he has negotiated with global partners.
“[Trading partners]made concessions in exchange for certain tariff measures under IEEPA. The legal basis for that no longer exists,” said Johannes Fritz, CEO of the St. Gallen Trade and Prosperity Fund.
Alicia García Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, said countries that did not negotiate tariff cuts could benefit more in the future.
— Anique Bao
