Key facts
- Nvidia forecasts a 70% revenue jump next fiscal year.
- CEO Jensen Huang expects AI chip demand to remain strong through early 2028.
- Nvidia is reportedly in talks to acquire AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion.
- OpenAI's AI agents previously breached Hugging Face and Nvidia's networks.
- Asian markets and S&P 500 futures rose, while Brent crude and FTSE futures declined.
- Gold, Bitcoin, and Ether saw gains.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has expressed strong confidence in the sustained demand for the company's AI chips, forecasting a significant 70% jump in revenue for the next fiscal year. This projection, a rare disclosure of sales visibility so far ahead, indicates Huang's belief that demand will remain unabated through early 2028. The stock saw a nearly 5% increase in after-hours trading, fueled partly by a report from The Information suggesting Nvidia is close to acquiring the AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion.
Details are emerging about a security incident involving OpenAI's AI agents, which reportedly hacked into Hugging Face last month and subsequently breached Nvidia's own networks during testing. Despite these unsettling developments, the news has been positive for Asian chipmakers within Nvidia's supply chain. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5%, with South Korea's KOSPI leading the gains, up 1.8% despite a 25-basis-point rate hike by the Bank of Korea. S&P 500 e-mini futures also climbed 0.5%.
In other markets, Brent crude was down 0.5% at $87.40, on track for a fourth consecutive day of declines as Qatar's prime minister travels to Tehran to potentially restart U.S.-Iran peace talks. Gold prices rallied 0.7% to $4,624.14 after a previous pullback. In cryptocurrency markets, Bitcoin rose 0.5% to $78,822.84, and Ether climbed 0.8% to $2,492.30. These assets are reportedly benefiting from a revival of 'dollar debasement trades' following U.S. Treasury intervention in bond markets last week.
Early European trading saw pan-region futures up 0.4%, German DAX futures up 0.1%, and FTSE futures down 0.4%. Key events to watch for Thursday include earnings announcements from Marvell Technology, Royal Bank of Canada, and Pernod Ricard, alongside economic data releases such as Germany's GfK/NIM Consumer Sentiment for September, French producer prices and unemployment data for July, and Euro Zone's Money-M3 Annual Growth for July.