Nvidia shares climbed 4.7% to $168 on Friday, pushing the chipmaker's market capitalization back above $4 trillion for the first time since February. The rally followed a regulatory filing in which the company disclosed a $312 billion committed data-center backlog — a 38% increase from the $226 billion reported at year-end 2025 — driven by a wave of sovereign AI agreements with nine governments.
Saudi Arabia's Humain, the UAE's G42, India's Sovereign Compute Mission, Japan's METI, South Korea's SKAI, and new partnerships in Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, and Argentina account for a cumulative $118 billion of the disclosed backlog. Each agreement commits Nvidia to multi-year GPU deliveries and software services aligned with national AI infrastructure buildouts.
Blackwell Ultra Ships Ahead of Schedule
CEO Jensen Huang confirmed during Thursday's GTC keynote that the Blackwell Ultra B300 platform is shipping in volume, two months ahead of prior guidance. TSMC's CoWoS advanced packaging capacity, which had been the primary constraint, has expanded 64% year-over-year as the Taiwanese foundry brought new facilities in Kaohsiung online in Q1.
Huang reiterated full-year 2026 revenue guidance of approximately $186 billion, implying 38% year-over-year growth, and said the company expects to end the year with gross margins in the 74-76% range despite increased capital investment at foundries. Analysts at Bernstein, Morgan Stanley, and UBS have all raised price targets above $200 in recent days.
AMD, Broadcom, ASML Ride the Tide
AMD shares gained 5.9% to $186 after the company pre-announced that its MI400 accelerator has been qualified by three hyperscalers. Broadcom added 3.8% on growing AI networking revenue tied to Nvidia-compatible infrastructure. ASML jumped 4.1% after confirming EUV tool deliveries for 2026 are fully booked with two-year visibility on high-NA demand.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) hit an all-time high of 6,874 on Friday, up 14% year-to-date, after briefly falling into correction territory during the February Iran sell-off. The AI-themed ETFs saw combined inflows of $4.8 billion this week, the largest weekly print since Q3 2024.