Nvidia slides as Amazon, Intel results stoke AI fears

Nvidia shares fell 4.2% on Friday, October 30, as weak results from Amazon Amazon.com, Inc. ↗ 6.12% and Intel ↘ 3.77% set off a broad tech selloff and added to investor worries about the cost of building artificial intelligence. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.9%, its biggest one-day percentage decline since June 5, according to The Straits Times. Fresh questions about Nvidia's own financing deals and its pending acquisition of Hugging Face also weighed on the stock.straitstimes.com

Amazon and Intel hit chip stocks

Intel fell 28.58%, its worst day since 1974, after a weak fourth-quarter forecast that it blamed on a soft PC market, CNN reported. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index PHLX Semiconductor Index ↘ 3.12% sank 7.2%. Intel expects fourth-quarter revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion, below the roughly $17 billion analysts had expected, according to Forbes. AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ↗ 1.01% slid 10.9%.forbes.com+1

Amazon's quarterly sales and profit both missed estimates. It reported negative free cash flow of $42.4 billion over the past 12 months and kept its 2026 capital spending forecast of about $220 billion, CNBC reported. The results came a day after Alphabet ↗ 3.25% had its worst day on record, which had already raised fears that AI costs were running ahead of returns, according to Dow Jones via Morningstar. After Friday's drop, Nvidia's market value fell back into the $4 trillion range, and Apple ↗ 5.31% took over the top spot, Seoul Economic Daily reported.cnbc.com+2

Circular financing concerns

Bloomberg reported that Nvidia was in talks to provide credit guarantees for an Nscale data center that Anthropic plans to use, Yahoo Finance noted. The report renewed concerns about deals in which Nvidia helps pay for the infrastructure its own customers build. The Information reported earlier in the week that Nvidia's data center commitments and guarantees total $165 billion, and a regulatory filing shows the company holds more than $63 billion in stakes in public companies, according to The Motley Fool via AOL. Nvidia will report its next quarterly results on November 17.aol.com+1

DOJ questions Hugging Face deal

Reuters reported on October 28 that the Justice Department has been asking how Nvidia's proposed $12.93 billion purchase of Hugging Face would affect competition in AI, including whether the deal would let Nvidia "capture a fundamental distribution point for AI," citing two people familiar with the matter. Those questions are part of a broader, years-long investigation into Nvidia's acquisitions, investments and sales practices, Reuters reported. Nvidia declined to comment, and investigations do not necessarily lead to lawsuits. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027. When Nvidia announced it, CEO Jensen Huang said "Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem," according to Reuters.reuters.com+1

Separately, a New York Times report published Thursday said U.S. intelligence had linked an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, who had developed a close relationship with Huang, to Chinese intelligence. Nvidia said meetings with customers are part of the CEO's job, according to Invezz.invezz.com