February 17, 2026 Nvidia’s stock slipped in early trading Monday after reports that the chipmaker’s plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI may be less certain than previously thought. Shares fell about 1.1 per cent late in the morning session following reports of unresolved details around the proposed deal.
The market reaction follows fresh scrutiny over the scale and structure of Nvidia’s planned partnership with OpenAI. While Nvidia had previously outlined a massive investment tied to building large-scale compute capacity, recent comments from executives suggest the final scope may still be in flux.
Nvidia and OpenAI announced an agreement last September to develop at least 10 gigawatts of computing capacity for OpenAI, alongside a potential investment of up to $100 billion. But reports over the weekend indicated the funding remains nonbinding, with CEO Jensen Huang previously signalling internally that the number was not locked in.
In a move to tamp down speculation, Huang reaffirmed his support for OpenAI while emphasizing that the final figure has not been finalized. He described the company as a key partner in the future of artificial intelligence and suggested Nvidia would still make its largest investment ever in the lab. “Sam is closing the round (of investment), and we will absolutely be involved. We will invest a great deal of money, probably the largest investment we’ve ever made,” he said.
Investors appear focused less on whether Nvidia will invest and more on how much and under what terms. Speaking to CNBC’s Worldwide Exchange, Sarah Kunst, managing director at Cleo Capital suggested uncertainty around the deal size has introduced volatility into the narrative.
“One of the things I did notice about Jensen Huang is that there wasn’t a strong ‘It will be $100 billion.’ It was, ‘It will be big. It will be our biggest investment ever.’ And so I do think there are some question marks there … that kind of back and forth isn’t normal between an investor and a startup to play out in the media,” she stated.
Some market watchers also point to broader concerns around “circular financing” in the AI sector, where major firms invest in one another while competing for dominance.
At the same time, the underlying strategic logic remains intact. Nvidia continues to dominate the AI hardware stack, and deepening ties with leading model developers could help lock in demand for its chips and infrastructure. For OpenAI, access to large-scale compute remains critical as model development grows more expensive.
