Nvidia Rides SpaceX Chip-Order Buzz Past a Sector-Wide Selloff

Nvidia rose 1.9% Friday after reports SpaceX may raise $40 billion in debt to buy its chips; buybacks, analyst upgrades and Berlin GTC loom.

Nvidia shares are back in the spotlight for two very different reasons this week: a potential multi-billion-dollar order from the commercial space industry, and a broad semiconductor pullback that briefly knocked the stock off its stride.

Reports circulating in the Spanish business press suggest SpaceX is preparing to raise $40 billion in debt and bonds in order to purchase semiconductors from the chipmaker. According to Cinco Días, the transaction remains speculative rather than a confirmed order — but the mere prospect of fresh large-scale demand has been enough to lift sentiment among market participants.

The stock responded on Friday with a 1.9% advance to EUR 209.45, leaving it just 3.1% shy of its 52-week high. That recovery came after a rough Thursday, when a sector-wide selloff in semiconductors and technology dragged the shares down 3.1% to a close of EUR 205.60. The decline had little to do with Nvidia itself. As AP reported, chip and tech names came under pressure amid rising oil prices and heightened volatility in the bond market, with Broadcom and Micron also retreating.

Adding to the unease were Financial Times reports that OpenAI's annualized revenue sits roughly $20 billion below previously cited figures — a disclosure that soured the mood across the entire artificial intelligence segment and made market participants more cautious.

Buybacks, Research Spending and a Laptop Push

The speculation about future chip deliveries lands at a company that has already been showering shareholders with unprecedented sums. At the end of September, the board of directors authorized an additional $150 billion for its existing share buyback program, lifting the total remaining repurchase authorization to $235 billion.

At the same time, Nvidia continues to invest in its own technological foundation. Over the next five years, the company has pledged a $1 billion initiative to expand research capacity in the United States in areas including quantum computing, healthcare and energy security.

The group is also pushing ahead with embedding its chips in end-user devices. Microsoft recently unveiled the Surface Laptop Ultra featuring Nvidia's RTX Spark chip, with the market launch scheduled for mid-October alongside additional models from manufacturers including Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo.

Analyst Support From Two Directions

Wall Street and European research desks have both weighed in with bullish calls. BNP Paribas raised its price target on Nvidia from $285 to $345 on October 5, reaffirming an "Outperform" rating. The French bank pointed to the company's end-to-end AI platform and its strong competitive position in increasingly complex computing workloads during the so-called inference phase.

Separately, Yorkville Ives initiated coverage on Wednesday with an "Outperform" rating and a $300 price target, citing Nvidia's role as the foundational computing platform for the AI economy. Despite the recent setback, the stock remains firmly in positive territory for the year, up 28% since January.

Berlin Conference in Focus

Attention now shifts to Europe, where Nvidia is set to make strategic announcements. The GTC developer conference runs from October 20 to 22 in Berlin, with CEO Jensen Huang delivering the opening keynote. Market observers are hoping his remarks will offer concrete insight into the company's technological roadmap and the next phase of monetizing data centers worldwide.