Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang speaks at the 2026 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Tuesday, January 6, 2026. Siemens and NVIDIA announced an expansion of their strategic partnership to develop industrial and physical AI solutions to bring AI-driven innovation to industrial workflows. Photographer: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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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.”
“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 rating upgrade for 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’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. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index settled 0.7% higher after a 10% universal tariff came into effect instead of a higher 15% tax rate announced by US President Donald Trump.
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…
What’s at stake in the countdown to the Trump-Xi meeting?
According to the White House, US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping from March 31 to April 2, with a focus on reducing tariffs, but China has not yet confirmed the dates.
The expected visit will be the first by a sitting US president to visit China since 2017.
The question hanging over next week’s meeting is how confident Beijing is in the fragile U.S. trade ceasefire that will keep exports afloat.
