Nvidia (NVDA) stock slid more than 3% Tuesday afternoon after the AI chipmaker’s annual GTC conference in California kicked off with a keynote from CEO Jensen Huang, who unveiled new and updated AI chips.
“Artificial intelligence has made extraordinary progress,” Huang said at the start of his speech.
The CEO confirmed in a two-plus hour keynote that Nvidia will launch its upcoming AI chip, Blackwell Ultra, in the second half of 2025, as previously expected. Blackwell Ultra follows the chipmaker’s current-generation Blackwell GPUs, which achieved full scale production during Nvidia’s fourth quarter, raking in $11 billion in revenue, after facing delays and reports of overheating and glitches.
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“Blackwell [the current-generation GPU] is in full production, and the ramp is incredible,” Huang said. “Customer demand is incredible.”
“We’ll easily transition into the upgrade [Blackwell Ultra],” he said.
In addition to the Blackwell Ultra chip, Nvidia debuted its GB300 superchip, which combines two Blackwell Ultras and one of its Grace CPUs (central processing units). Huang also said Nvidia will launch its next AI superchip, Vera Rubin, in the second half of 2026 — and the next-gen superchip after that, Vera Rubin Ultra, in the second half of 2027.
“We have an annual rhythm of roadmaps that has been laid out for you,” he said.
Huang’s updates failed to stem a slide in the company’s shares that pervaded through a broader market rout Tuesday, which was led by large-cap tech stocks. Nvidia’s decline Tuesday put shares of the AI chipmaker down nearly 14% year to date.
Nvidia stock has experienced significant volatility in 2025. Shares started the year with a bang, hitting a record close above $149 in early January. They tumbled when a new AI model from Chinese firm DeepSeek reignited concerns over an AI bubble and shaved nearly $600 billion from the chipmaker’s market cap in a single day. In its most recent rout, following its fourth quarter earnings and heightened macroeconomic uncertainty, Nvidia saw its market cap losses from its record close reach $1 trillion.
Nvidia bull and Wedbush analyst Dan Ives had hoped GTC would be “a wake-up moment for the tech bulls,” as he wrote in a note to investors Tuesday.
Overall, tech stocks have led the stock market’s recent downturn. The Nasdaq (^IXIC) entered correction territory on March 6, and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) followed suit a week later, as President Trump’s tariffs and DOGE-driven cuts to federal jobs fueled concerns over inflation.
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“We clearly need stable Trump policy and investors need to know the rules of the game … but that will all happen over the coming months and we do not believe this dramatically changes the trajectory of the AI Revolution,” Ives wrote.
He added: “We believe this week’s Nvidia GTC Conference will be a turning point for tech stocks as the Street starts to refocus on the AI Revolution and the massive tech spending ahead for the coming years.”
Jensen Huang speaking at the Nvidia Keynote at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas on Jan. 6. (DeeCee Carter/MediaPunch/IPX) · DeeCee Carter/MediaPunch/MediaPunch/IPx
Truist analyst Will Stein also stayed bullish on Nvidia ahead of GTC, reiterating his Buy rating and $205 price target on the stock in a note to investors Tuesday.
Stein acknowledged bearish arguments against the AI trade: “The biggest investor concern (that was magnified by DeepSeek (private)) is that NVDA’s customers are deploying too much AI compute capacity today, and that customers will subsequently enter a period of digestion, causing a cyclical downturn. To us, this dynamic is a certainty; the only question is on timing.”
He continued: “We continue to view NVDA as *the* AI company. Its leadership position is owing less to the architecture, speed, or performance of its chips, and more to the results of its culture of innovation, ecosystem of incumbency, and massive ongoing investment in software, training models, and services.”
Laura Bratton is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Bluesky @laurabratton.bsky.social. Email her at [email protected].
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