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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
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Nvidia’s slump continues even after Jensen Huang softens his statement that “China is going to win the AI race”

Different words, same message.

Luke Kawa

Nvidia ended Wednesday’s session with a late-day drubbing, which was followed by an article from the Financial Times in which CEO Jensen Huang said, “China is going to win the AI race” because its regulatory environment and ability to access power is more supportive of the industry’s growth.

Nvidia’s official newsroom account on X put out a softened, more sanitized statement attributed to Huang on this topic hours later on Wednesday evening:

“As I have long said, China is nanoseconds behind America in AI. It’s vital that America wins by racing ahead and winning developers worldwide.”

To translate: the AI race between the US and China is tight, and it’s vital that America wins by winning.

The unwritten subtext is still the same: “China is going to win the AI race” — without having access to Nvidia’s flagship GPUs, or even wanting its nerfed chips!

Shares of the chip designer are down 1.7% as of 10:36 a.m ET.

It’s interesting thinking through who Huang’s audience for both sets of remarks is. The initial statement is likely aimed at the Trump administration in a bid to reinforce the urgency of the power demands of the AI boom.

The administration appears to have already been moving in this direction, with US Energy Secretary Christopher Wright reportedly looking to speed the approval process for data centers to connect to the power grid.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said his biggest problem today is “not a supply issue of chips; it’s actually the fact that I don’t have warm shelves to plug into.”

The second statement is likely aimed at quelling alarm from anyone worried too much about the first statement!

Two things can be true, I suppose: China may be poised to race ahead of the US in AI, as Huang warned, and Nvidia’s business in China getting turfed has not stopped the chip designer from being the biggest AI-linked stock market winner. Last week, Nvidia noted that it’s received more than $500 billion in orders for its Blackwell and Rubin chips through 2026.

After the Trump administration banned the sale of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China, Jensen Huang spent a lot of time trying to convince President Trump of the importance of companies around the world (China included!) operating on his company’s CUDA software platform. Those efforts bore fruit, as export restrictions were lifted. But in the process of trying to win over hearts and minds, Huang may have also convinced Chinese President Xi as well, spurring renewed efforts from China to bolster its domestic AI capabilities in both hardware and software and shift away from Nvidia’s offerings.

(As an aside, Wednesday’s late-day slump in Nvidia had all the makings of a “someone knows something” move: though the FT story in question wasn’t published until 4 p.m. ET, shares of the chip designer were soft throughout the last hour of trading, with selling accelerating 10 minutes ahead of the close.)

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Marvell and Flex rise on S&P 500 inclusion announcement

Chipmaker Marvell Technology and electronics manufacturer Flex are jumping 7% and 3%, respectively, in premarket trading on Monday, after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced late on Friday that the two companies are set to join the S&P 500 benchmark index.

Replacing Pool Corp and Campbell’s in the S&P 500, Marvell and Flex’s addition will be effective from June 22, per a press release from the provider, which assesses and updates the index on a quarterly basis.

Marvell has been one of the leading candidates for inclusion across the last few quarterly index rebalances. The company has ballooned into a $230 billion chip giant of late, thanks to the wider AI boom, investors chasing momentum, and, yes, Jensen Huang. Flex, which has been part of the S&P MidCap 400 index since 2024, has also grown recently, having played a part in the data center boom with its portfolio spanning across infrastructure and cooling systems.

With today’s premarket movement taken into account, MRVL has now risen almost 40% in the last week alone.

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Lululemon’s stretch getting tested: Stock plunges after after outlook is cut

Lululemon shares are down double digits in premarket trading after the company cut its full-year sales and profit outlook, overshadowing a Q1 beat and raising fresh concerns about the brand’s turnaround efforts.

The company now expects fiscal 2026 revenue to be flat to down 1%, compared with its prior forecast for 2% to 4% growth. Guidance for full-year diluted earnings per share was dragged down to a range of $10.95 to $11.15, below the company’s previous guidance of $12.10 to $12.30 and well below Wall Street’s estimate of $13.26.

Key numbers for Q1:

  • EPS of $1.69 vs. the $1.68 expected.

  • Revenue of $2.47 billion vs. the $2.43 billion expected.

The modest top-line beat masked a widening divergence between Lululemons geographic markets. While international revenue rose 22% overall with a 30% increase in Mainland China, the bigger problem remains North America, where revenue fell 5%.

Interim co-CEO and CFO Meghan Frank acknowledged during the earnings call that recent product rollouts underperformed. A highly anticipated yoga campaign failed to generate its expected halo effect across broader product lines.

Profitability metrics took a major hit, with gross margins contracting by 410 basis points to 54.2% due to mounting tariff costs and promotional markdowns. Operating income consequently fell 37% year over year to $276.9 million.

“We experienced spikes of negative commentary in the media and on social channels with regard to our brand, which had an impact on traffic and overall top-line performance,” Frank said during the earnings call. “And second, not all of our product launches have met our expectations. While we have had several successful launches so far this year, we have seen others as we start Q2 not generate the anticipated guest response.”

Lululemons valuation has already been steadily compressing for years. While it was once one of retails richly valued stocks, investors have been questioning whether the company can return to the double-digit growth era.

The results also arrive during a leadership transition. Lululemon announced back in April that former Nike executive Heidi ONeill is set to take over as CEO in September, with investors looking to her to revive growth in North America and restore the brands growth.

As Lululemon faces both macroeconomic pressure and brand-specific challenges, its stock has dropped around 40% year to date.

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