Secret Weapons
Nvidia's US$150B buyback and Micron's mega quarter.
After an incredible run, what’s the best way to keep momentum going? Maybe not Wharfie Time, given its failure to produce the desired effect at the AFL Grand Final. But U.S. tech firms had no shortage of secret weapons that worked better this week.
Nvidia ($NVDA) defied Monday’s broader semiconductor selloff after announcing the largest stock buyback in its history. The US$150B buyback takes the total buyback program to US$235B, meaning Nvidia’s quarterly buybacks will sit at US$39B for the next six quarters.
Analysts estimate Nvidia will make US$436B of free cash flow over that period, so it’s generating enough cash to support this endeavour. Still, it’s no longer the biggest driver of the S&P 500’s profit growth.
That title now belongs to Micron ($MU) after the memory chip maker reported a 1000% YoY growth in earnings, with revenue of US$54.23B in Q4. The company said it expects next quarter's revenue to hit US$61.5B, far ahead of the US$57B analysts were expecting.
AMD’s ($AMD) US$8.2B all-stock acquisition of World Labs marks a big step as it pushes for being more than just a chip maker. World Labs, founded by Fei-Fei Li (aka ’the godmother of AI’ and kind of a big deal in this space), builds models that understand and generate 3D environments. Fei-Fei will take on a role as AMD’s chief scientist and executive VP.
In the world of executive acquisitions, Meta ($META) was making moves too. Zuckerberg’s bringing on MongoDB ($MDB) CEO ‘CJ’ Desai to run the newly launched Meta Enterprise Platform. Desai’s surprise departure sent $MDB down 18% on Monday.
Meta is still riding on Muse’s success, but it's got a new rival in OpenAI’s ‘Dots’ unveiled at DevDay 2026. OpenAI is also eyeing a US$30B funding round at a US$1.4T valuation ahead of its potential IPO – Altman doesn’t think it's the right moment to go public, but says ‘it’s kind of bad of the world if OpenAI takes too long.’
Meanwhile, a leaked Anthropic IPO prospectus made its way to the Reuters desk. Anthropic reportedly made a net loss of US$42B in 2025, plans to spend US$518B in the coming years and grew revenue 12x to US$4.6B.
It’s also fairly dependent on big tech: sales through Alphabet ($GOOGL) and Amazon ($AMZN) made up 47% of its annual revenue. And committed US$84.5B to SpaceX’s ($SPCX) computing capacity through 2029.
The best secret weapon for momentum in the tech world? Big cheques. Nvidia and AMD are writing them, OpenAI and Anthropic are lining up ways to spend.
This is not financial advice nor a recommendation to invest in any of the securities listed. The information presented is for general information purposes only and intended to be of a factual nature only. Past performance and forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future performance. The value of your investments can go down as well as up and you may receive back less than your original investment. The author of this article and other employees of Stakeshop Pty Ltd may hold positions or have financial interests in the company (or companies) discussed above. As always, do your own research and consider seeking financial, legal and taxation advice before investing.
Markets Analyst
Samy is a markets analyst at Stake, with seven years of experience in the world of investing, working across roles in private banking, venture capital and financial media. She has a Master’s degree in Finance and Data Analytics from The University of Sydney Business School.
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