Nvidia Stock Gains. Amazon and Korea Are Providing a Lift.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is visiting South Korea. (Photo by I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images)

Key Points

• Nvidia shares rose after Amazon.com indicated increased AI investment and continued purchases of Nvidia hardware.
• Amazon’s capital spending is projected to reach $125 billion this year, with a significant portion allocated to Nvidia hardware.
• Nvidia announced deals with Korean companies, including Samsung, Hyundai, and SK Telecom, deploying over 260,000 GPUs.

Nvidia stock was rising on Friday after Amazon.com added to the wave of artificial-intelligence investment, and the chip maker announced a series of deals with Korean companies.

Nvidia shares were up 1.1% at $205.16 in early trading Friday. The stock fell 2% on Thursday.

Nvidia could be benefiting from results from Amazon, which added to the chorus of large cloud-computing companies saying demand for AI capacity outstrips supply. Amazon executives said capital spending would come in at around $34.2 billion in the current quarter and reach $125 billion this year before increasing in 2026, with plenty of that expected to be spent on Nvidia hardware.

“We have a very deep relationship with Nvidia. We have for a very long time. And we will for as long as I can foresee the future,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told analysts in an earnings call. “We are not constrained in any way in buying Nvidia, and I expect that we’ll continue to buy more Nvidia both next year and in the future.”

Meanwhile, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is visiting South Korea and the company made a flurry of joint announcements with Korean companies including Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor Group and SK Telecom on Friday. In total, Nvidia said more than 260,000 of its graphics-processing units will be deployed across the county.

“Korea’s leadership in technology and manufacturing positions it at the heart of the AI industrial revolution,” Huang said in Korea. “Just as Korea’s physical factories have inspired the world with sophisticated ships, cars, chips and electronics, the nation can now produce intelligence as a new export that will drive global transformation.”

Among the commitments is Samsung’s plan for a “megafactory” using more than 50,000 of Nvidia’s GPUs, as part of its production of semiconductors, mobile devices and robotics. Nvidia and Samsung vowed the two companies plan to continue to work together on various advanced memory technologies in addition to chip manufacturing services.

Among other chip makers, Advanced Micro Devices was 2.1% higher and Broadcom was flat in early trading.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com and Tae Kim at tae.kim@barrons.com