NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang gestures at the NVIDIA GTC Global AI Conference on March 17, 2026 in San Jose, California, USA.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
Hello, this is Leonie Kidd from London.
Nvidia needed something big to impress the market, and Jensen Huang’s company didn’t disappoint. Beyond the numbers, there’s a lot for investors to understand as the AI giant is reportedly back on the M&A path.
Read more.
What you need to know today
Nvidia delivered the surprise that AI bulls were hoping for. The company’s fiscal 2028 sales are expected to rise 70%, beating estimates. This is significantly higher than Wall Street’s most optimistic forecasts.
Next year’s sales will reach $673 billion, based on a consensus forecast of $396 billion in sales for the 2027 fiscal year, which ends in January. That would put Nvidia ahead of the curve. apple and alphabetonly after that, according to Wall Street forecasts Amazon Among U.S. technology companies, it remains primarily a retailer.
And it could have been bigger.
“Our demand is well above 70%,” CEO Hwang said at an earnings conference. “With our supply, we can confidently deliver 70%, and we will continue to work with our supply chain to increase that percentage.”
You can watch Huang’s full interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer here.
Need a hug?
Amid these blockbuster announcements, reports also surfaced that Nvidia was exploring a deal. Both Business Insider and The Information have reported that the group is in talks to buy Hug Face for about $13 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. CNBC has reached out to both companies for comment.
Hugging Face was recently hacked by one of OpenAI’s agents, and Sam Altman’s group released a technical report on Wednesday detailing how its model infiltrated Hugging Face last month.
Read CNBC’s full interview with HackingFace CEO Clem DeLang on the impact of the hack here.
N scale up
Nvidia isn’t the only company considering a deal.
Anthropic has agreed to a roughly $45 billion cloud deal with UK-based AI infrastructure company Nscale, according to CNBC sources.
As part of the deal, Anthropic will lease about 460 megawatts of computing power from its Nscale data center development in West Virginia, according to two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because the details are confidential.
Payment secured
Meanwhile, Mehta and the state’s attorneys agreed to a $16.7 billion settlement.
The federal lawsuit was based on allegations that the social media giant misrepresented the extent of the harm to children’s mental health caused by apps such as Facebook and Instagram.
The settlement includes several requirements that Meta must impose on the app, including daily usage limits and “night blocks” for youth.
straight to the point
Oil prices remain depressed after Iran claimed it had reached an agreement with Oman to resume shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The agreement includes a revenue sharing agreement.
Despite the agreement, the British Maritime Organization reported earlier this week that another tanker was struck by an unknown projectile.
jackson hole
Economists want Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh to share more of his views on the economy in Jackson Hole, a CNBC survey found. Warsh is scheduled to address a meeting of central bank governors on Friday.
Before that, CNBC’s Steve Reisman will speak with Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmidt and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack on Thursday. Follow those interviews here.
— Leonie Kidd
And finally…
The latest fad in the toy industry is cheap, colorful and super fluffy
Dumplings, ice cubes, gummy bears, and anything else that can be crushed are among the most popular toys of 2026
Squishy toys have been around for years, but products like NeeDoh, made by Massachusetts-based Schilling, have exploded in popularity this year, thanks in part to their relatively low prices and social media appeal.
Kristen MacLean, vice president of customer insights and leader of the entertainment knowledge group at market research firm Circana, told CNBC that sales of squishy toys in the U.S. through June reached about $297 million, quadrupling from the same period last year.
According to MacLean, sales in the same period increased by about 200% to 58.6 million units.
— Jenny Lee
—CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this report.
