Nvidia Stock Hits a Record High After Microsoft, Meta’s Blowout Earnings. Here’s Why.

Nvidia chips are the favored choice for training artificial-intelligence models. (Courtesy NVIDIA)

Nvidia stock hit an intraday high Thursday after earnings from Microsoft and Meta Platforms reinforced expectations of continued investment in its artificial-intelligence chips.

Nvidia shares reached a record $183.30 in early trading, but failed to close above $180 for the first time. The stock finished the day down 0.8% at $177.87. The S&P 500 fell 0.4%.

Microsoft and Meta both underlined their commitment to spending on AI hardware in positive earnings reports late Wednesday. Plenty of that money is expected to be used to purchase Nvidia processors.

Microsoft reported fourth-quarter capital expenditures of $24 billion, above estimates of $21.4 billion. The software and cloud company also said it expects demand for cloud services, including for AI workloads, to outstrip data-center capacity through the end of this year.

Meta raised the lower end of its range of forecasts for its 2025 capex, calling for $66 billion-$72 billion, up from $64 billion-$72 billion previously.

“We currently expect another year of similarly significant capital expenditures dollar growth in 2026,” Meta CFO Susan Li said in the earnings release. Analysts said the 2026 outlook suggests Meta will spend roughly $100 billion in capex next year, significantly ahead of earlier expectations among analysts.

Nvidia might also receive a boost from Stargate Norway, a project announced Thursday by a partnership of ChatGPT-developer OpenAI, AI infrastructure company Nscale and Norwegian industrial company Aker. The facility in Narvik will house 100,000 of Nvidia’s graphics-processing units by the end of 2026 and use renewable power for AI workloads in Europe, the companies said in a joint statement.

Among other chip makers, Advanced Micro Devices was down 1.8% and Broadcom fell 3%.

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