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NVIDIA Corporation NVDA continues to raise the bar for AI-driven growth. Its second-quarter fiscal 2027 results showed triple-digit revenue and earnings growth, while strong third-quarter guidance points to another record quarter. Demand for AI infrastructure remains robust across hyperscalers, enterprises, AI startups and sovereign customers. With new products expanding its opportunity, NVDA stock appears well-positioned for further gains despite supply constraints. NVIDIA delivered another exceptional quarter, with second-quarter revenues jumping 106% year over year and 18% sequentially to $96.22 billion. Data Center revenues were particularly impressive, rising 117% year over year and 18% sequentially to $89.02 billion. The business benefited from continued strength in Blackwell and accelerating demand from both hyperscalers and its broader AI customer base. Profitability also remained impressive. Non-GAAP gross margin increased to 75% from 72.5% a year earlier, while non-GAAP operating income surged 124% to $63.96 billion. Non-GAAP net income jumped 118% to $53.95 billion, and non-GAAP earnings per share increased 120% to $2.22. NVIDIA Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | NVIDIA Corporation Quote In the second quarter, the company generated operating cash flow of $24.08 billion and free cash flow of $21.34 billion. This gives NVIDIA ample flexibility to invest in growth while returning capital to shareholders. It returned approximately $25.78 billion to shareholders through repurchases and dividends during the second quarter. NVIDIA expects third-quarter revenues of $108 billion, plus or minus 2%, implying another sequential increase. The company expects non-GAAP gross margin of 74%, plus or minus 50 basis points. This outlook does not include any Data Center compute revenues from China, suggesting that current expectations are not dependent on a recovery in that market. The outlook is supported by continued Blackwell demand and the rapid rollout of Vera Rubin. NVIDIA began production shipments of Vera Rubin in August, with major hyperscalers and AI infrastructure providers already adopting the platform. The company expects Vera Rubin to account for about 20% of Data Center revenues in the third quarter. NVIDIA's opportunity extends well beyond selling graphics processing units. Its full-stack AI platform includes central processing units, networking, software and complete AI factory systems. The company forecasts that its revenue opportunity per gigawatt has expanded from about $18 billion with Hopper to $25 billion with Blackwell and $40 billion with Vera Rubin. This rising value per deployed gigawatt gives NVIDIA another avenue for growth as AI infrastructure expands. The customer base is also becoming more diversified. Hyperscale revenues surged 117% year over year to $48.71 billion in the second quarter, while ACIE revenues — covering AI clouds, industrial and enterprise customers — jumped 138% to $40.31 billion. Amazon Web Services also announced plans to deploy an additional 2 million NVIDIA GPUs through the second quarter of fiscal 2029, highlighting sustained demand from major cloud providers. NVIDIA expects fiscal 2028 revenues to grow approximately 70%. The company noted that revenue growth expectations for fiscal 2028 are a supply-constrained outlook, meaning demand could be even stronger if more capacity were available. NVIDIA is also investing heavily to secure that supply. Supplier commitments rose to $279 billion at the end of the second quarter, primarily related to memory procurement. The company is further expanding its ecosystem through AI cloud partnerships, financing initiatives and strategic investments. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NVIDIA’s fiscal 2027 and 2028 revenues indicates year-over-year growth of 85.4% and 2.2%, respectively. The consensus mark for earnings calls for a year-over-year increase of 93.3% for fiscal 2027 and 60% for fiscal 2028. Analysts are also becoming optimistic about the company’s long-term prospects as reflected in their upward earnings estimate revisions over the past seven days. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Despite its leadership position in the AI chip space, NVIDIA stock has delivered relatively modest gains this year. Shares have rallied 26.7% over the past year, lagging the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s 30.2% rise. The stock has also significantly underperformed several semiconductor peers, including Intel Corporation INTC, Marvell Technology, Inc. MRVL and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD. Year to date, shares of Intel, Marvell Technology and Advanced Micro Devices have surged 267.9%, 237% and 189.1%, respectively. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Nonetheless, the positive side of this underperformance is that NVDA stock trades at a discount to the sector’s average. The stock currently trades at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 17.75. This is below the sector average of 20.76. For a company delivering triple-digit revenue and earnings growth, this valuation gap makes the stock particularly interesting. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research NVIDIA’s valuation is also significantly lower than that of semiconductor peers such as Advanced Micro Devices, Marvell Technology and Intel. At present, Advanced Micro Devices, Marvell Technology and Intel trade at forward 12-month multiples of 38.56, 40.02 and 50.07, respectively. A lower valuation multiple is notable because NVIDIA arguably possesses stronger growth prospects, higher profitability and a more dominant competitive position than many of its rivals. This suggests that investors are not paying an excessive premium for the company’s future earnings potential. If NVIDIA continues delivering strong financial results, the current valuation could leave room for additional upside over the long term. The combination of explosive Data Center growth, strong third-quarter guidance, the Vera Rubin product cycle, rising AI infrastructure spending and expanding customer diversity provides a compelling long-term investment case. NVIDIA's supply constraint is a risk, but it is largely tied to the same powerful AI demand driving growth. With NVDA trading below the broader tech sector's average forward P/E despite its superior growth profile, the stock looks worthy of consideration for investors seeking long-term exposure to the AI infrastructure boom. NVIDIA currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Intel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report Marvell Technology, Inc. (MRVL) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Broadcom AVGO) is scheduled to report results for its fiscal third quarter after-market hours on Wednesday, September 2, with Wall Street looking for another quarter of exceptional growth. This comes as custom AI accelerators, networking chips, and its VMware integration continue to drive the company's expansion. Broadcom has already set a high bar by forecasting another major acceleration in AI semiconductor revenue, although AVGO shares are up a modest 7% year to date but have posted impressive gains of more than 125% in the last two years. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate calls for Broadcom to post Q3 earnings of $3.22 per share, representing a remarkable 90% increase from EPS of $1.69 in the year-ago period. Quarterly revenue is projected at $29.47 billion, up nearly 85% from $15.95 billion in the prior-year quarter. Wall Street's sales forecast is still in line with management's guidance for roughly $29.4 billion in Q3 revenue, with Broadcom expecting adjusted EBITDA to equal approximately 68% of revenue, underscoring the company's tremendous profitability despite its rapid expansion. The expectations follow a record second quarter in which revenue climbed 48% to $22.18 billion, while adjusted EPS reached $2.44. Broadcom also generated an impressive $10.26 billion in free cash flow, or 46% of quarterly revenue. Notably, Broadcom has exceeded earnings expectations for 21 consecutive quarters with an average EPS surprise of 2.19% in its last four quarterly reports. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research More important than the headline numbers will be Broadcom's AI semiconductor business. After Q2 AI semiconductor revenue soared 143% to $10.8 billion, management expects the figure to reach approximately $16 billion in Q3, representing more than 200% YoY growth. That would also mark a nearly 50% sequential increase in just one quarter. Much of this growth is being fueled by Broadcom's custom AI accelerators, or X Application-Specific Purpose Units (XPUs), and its Ethernet networking portfolio, which allow hyperscalers to build increasingly large AI computing clusters. Broadcom's expanding list of partners is particularly noteworthy. The company has a multi-year partnership with Meta Platforms META) to support Meta’s MTIA custom AI chips, including a next-generation 2-nanometer accelerator. Broadcom is also working closely with OpenAI on custom AI accelerators, including a planned 10-gigawatt deployment and the recently unveiled Jalapeño Intelligence Processor. Furthermore, Broadcom has AI engagements with Alphabet's Google GOOGL) and Anthropic, giving it exposure to several of the world's largest AI infrastructure spenders. Broadcom's growth story extends beyond AI chips. VMware, which Broadcom acquired in 2023, provides virtualization and private-cloud software that allows enterprises to efficiently run and manage applications and computing workloads across their own data-center infrastructure. VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is increasingly being positioned as a platform for running traditional applications alongside newer AI workloads and is providing a nice boost to Broadcom’s software revenue. To that point, Broadcom's Infrastructure Software revenue rose 9% YoY to $7.2 billion in Q2, while annual recurring revenue (ARR) increased 17%. Management expects a sharp acceleration in Q3, forecasting Infrastructure Software revenue to increase 31% to $8.9 billion. Broadcom cited particularly strong adoption of VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1, which enables enterprises to run AI inference and Kubernetes, which is a central platform for orchestrating containerized applications and traditional virtualized workloads across Nvidia NVDA), AMD AMD) and Intel INTC) computing platforms. That makes VMware an important complement to Broadcom's booming semiconductor business, adding a recurring, high-margin software revenue stream while also giving the company another way to benefit from growing enterprise AI infrastructure spending. Broadcom occupies an increasingly important position in the AI chip market, but competition remains fierce. Nvidia remains the dominant supplier of general-purpose AI accelerators and is also pushing aggressively into the networking market. Meanwhile, Marvell Technology MRVL) competes directly with Broadcom in custom AI silicon and high-speed data-center connectivity. Broadcom's advantage is that hyperscalers increasingly want customized chips optimized for their own AI workloads, rather than relying exclusively on more expensive general-purpose GPUs. Broadcom doesn't necessarily have to displace Nvidia for its AI business to thrive, as it can capture a growing portion of the enormous AI infrastructure market alongside Nvidia. Broadcom’s outlook remains encouraging, with Zacks projections calling for the chip giant’s annual earnings to increase 72% this year to $11.74 per share versus EPS of $6.82 in fiscal 2025. Plus, FY27 EPS is projected to spike another 63% to $19.10. This comes as Broadcom’s top line is expected to expand over 65% in FY26 and FY27, with next year's sales projections heading north of $175 billion. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Broadcom enters Wednesday's report with extremely high expectations, but its fundamentals continue to justify much of that optimism. AI semiconductor revenue is projected to exceed $16 billion in Q3 alone, VMware is strengthening the company's recurring software business, and partnerships with Meta, OpenAI, and other hyperscalers provide significant visibility into future AI infrastructure spending. That said, there is certainly execution risk when revenue and earnings are expected to rise at such extraordinary rates, making Broadcom's Q4 outlook especially important. Nevertheless, its expanding custom AI accelerator business and leadership in next-generation networking make Broadcom stock one of the most compelling ways to gain exposure to AI infrastructure growth. With AVGO trading at a reasonable 31X forward earnings multiple, Broadcom stock currently sports a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), as EPS revisions for FY26 and FY27 are still sharply higher in the last 90 days. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Intel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Marvell Technology, Inc. (MRVL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

The programs the deal covers in the near term were already inside the targets management had published, and it is connectivity rather than custom silicon that management points to for the raise that did arrive. Marvell Technology (MRVL) reported a record quarter, raised its revenue outlook for fiscal 2027 (by about $500 million) and fiscal 2028, and lost 10.3% of its value in the first session after the report. Coverage of the session named two drivers: softer-than-hoped fiscal 2028 guidance despite the raise, and the timing of an expanded commercial agreement and warrant with a key hyperscaler. The second turns on when that money arrives rather than whether it does. The Warrant Is Already Inside The Targets Through Fiscal 2028 Revenue of $2.74 billion beat the consensus estimate of $2.71 billion, and adjusted earnings of $0.94 a share cleared consensus too. AVGO, NVDA and AMD fell between 0.7% and 4.6% over the same span, so most of the selling was Marvell's own. The agreement covers inference accelerators, storage controllers and network interface controllers attached to the TPU ecosystem, and an analyst on the call sized it at roughly $120 billion of cumulative revenue over six years if every milestone is hit, about $18.5 billion a year annualized, from that one customer's custom-attach programs alone. The guidance does not carry that pace: the same analyst put custom at around $5 billion to $6 billion in calendar 2027. Management's answer: the programs the agreement covers through fiscal 2028 are already inside the custom revenue target the company had published earlier, and the meaningful contribution starts in fiscal 2029. Connectivity, More Than Custom, Paid For The Fiscal 2028 Raise Fiscal 2028 revenue is now guided to roughly $18 billion, up $1.5 billion from the $16.5 billion outlook given one quarter earlier. Custom silicon is part of that, but management calls connectivity the bigger bucket and probably the largest driver, pointing to scale-up optics and switching rather than at the programs the warrant covers. Both sit inside one end market: data center revenue made up 79% of the total, and the company's own risk disclosures flag a rising dependence on a few customers. Concentration of that kind is a different proposition from the Trefis High Quality Portfolio, which does not depend on the handful of largest technology names to produce its returns. The Custom Ramp Reaches Gross Margin First Non-GAAP gross margin was 58.9% in fiscal Q2 2027, and the fiscal Q3 2027 guidance midpoint is 58.0%, a 90 basis point step down that management attributes to the forecast acceleration of its custom business. The CFO's preliminary view is that fiscal 2028 gross margin sits in the same band as the back half of fiscal 2027. The lower-margin part arrives first, though management guides operating margin into its 38% to 40% target range exiting fiscal 2027. October Is Where Fiscal 2029 Gets Its Number Management's fiscal 2029 custom target of more than $10 billion is not a new number: management said it had flagged the figure as far back as its last call and as early as June 2025, after having put custom revenue at $8 billion to $10 billion in April 2024. Management says the warrant biases that target higher but has declined to size the increase before the October 6 investor day. Until then, the case for owning Marvell rests on connectivity execution that is already inside the guide, not on a warrant increment nobody has put a number on. Options currently price Marvell's implied volatility near 60%, in the 56th percentile of its trailing one-year range, a middling reading for how much movement the market is pricing over a year. A Bet On One Build Cycle Is Still One Bet Marvell's story from here turns on how fast a handful of hyperscaler programs move from design to volume, a schedule set by its customers. Investors who would rather hold a rules-based system than a single build cycle can start with the Trefis High Quality Portfolio. That portfolio has a track record of outpacing the three major indices - the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap, and Russell 2000.

MRVL dropped 8% despite beating estimates and raising its FY2028 revenue target to $18 billion after management pushed the Google AI payoff to fiscal 2029. NVDA barely moved and INTC slipped 2%, confirming the market treats the selloff as a Marvell-specific timing reset rather than a broad AI infrastructure de-rating. GOOGL holds a warrant for up to 7% of MRVL shares tied to revenue milestones, with Investor Day on October 6 the next catalyst to quantify the upside. Don't wait: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just revealed his top 10 AI stocks. See the full list FREE now. A beat-and-raise report from Marvell hit the wires after Thursday's close, yet Friday's early trading told a very different story. Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) stock is down 7% to $225 in early Friday trading, giving back a chunk of a huge recent run despite a record Data Center quarter and a bigger long-term revenue outlook. The catalyst comes down to timing. Marvell disclosed an expanded custom silicon agreement with Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google that could scale into a franchise-defining opportunity. Management pushed the big financial impact out to fiscal 2029, later than the market was positioned for. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) is down 1% to $520.70 in early trading. The broader tech tape is down 0.1% to $720.42, essentially unmoved by comparison. That gap suggests the selloff is a Marvell-specific reset rather than a broad semiconductor unwind. Marvell reported fiscal second quarter 2027 revenue of $2.739 billion, up 37% year over year, with non-GAAP earnings of $0.94 per share. Both figures topped Wall Street expectations, positioning the release as one of the cleaner AI infrastructure reports of the season. Marvell's Data Center revenue reached a record $2.17 billion, up 46% year over year, and represented 79% of total revenue. Q3 FY2027 Data Center growth is guided at 75% year over year, reinforcing the mix shift toward AI infrastructure customers. Don't wait: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just revealed his top 10 AI stocks. See the full list FREE now. Marvell raised its fiscal 2027 revenue outlook to about $12 billion from a previous $11.5 billion, and its fiscal 2028 target to about $18 billion from $16.5 billion. CEO Matt Murphy stated that "AI-related bookings remain exceptionally robust, and we expect our revenue growth to accelerate further through the remainder of fiscal 2027." The expanded Google agreement covers custom AI inference accelerators, storage controllers, network interface controllers, memory interface controllers, and near-memory compute, all attached to the TPU ecosystem. A warrant allows Google to acquire up to 7% of Marvell's shares, tied to revenue milestones. An analyst on the call framed the program as roughly $120 billion in cumulative revenue over six years, and management called the assessment directionally valid. The issue for Marvell shares is that management said the big impact would arrive "in 29 and beyond," with most of the near-term contribution already reflected in existing guidance. Marvell also guided Q3 non-GAAP gross margin to 57.5% to 58.5%, a sequential decline of about 90 basis points at the midpoint, attributed to a growing contribution from custom AI silicon that carries lower margins than the company's standard products. That combination, back-loaded revenue paired with front-loaded margin compression, is exactly the mix that trims a stretched multiple. For Marvell stock trading at a rich forward valuation, pushing the payoff two fiscal years out gives active managers a reason to trim into strength and revisit closer to the Investor Day setup. Meanwhile, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock is down 0.2% to $227.63, barely budging after its own AI results already set the tone earlier in the week. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) stock is down 2% to $90.34, slipping in sympathy without a fresh company catalyst of its own. The narrow spread across peers confirms the market is treating Marvell's move as an idiosyncratic reset around timing and mix rather than a broader AI infrastructure de-rating. Google's role as counterparty introduces a potential dilution mechanic for Marvell if milestones are hit, though the exposure is a long-tailed structural feature rather than an immediate overhang. Google's own AI infrastructure buildout is the underlying demand engine that made the agreement valuable in the first place, which is why the strategic read is more constructive than the tape suggests. The next scheduled catalyst is Marvell's Investor Day on October 6, 2026 in New York City, where management plans to detail the fiscal 2029 custom-revenue trajectory, ranges for the Google-related agreement, and a refreshed long-term operating model. A quantified upside case for the warrant could reframe the story as a near-term revenue accelerator, and the absence of one could deepen the reset. Traders can watch for whether MRVL stock holds key support after Thursday's close. Marvell shares were up 185% year to date through the prior session, so today's giveback still leaves a stretched setup heading into October. Investors considering the name should size their positions cautiously into Investor Day and treat any Q3 execution slippage as a signal to trim exposure rather than add. Don't wait: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just revealed his top 10 AI stocks. See the full list FREE now. Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

One of the biggest events on the August investment calendar is right around the corner – Nvidia Corporation’s (NVDA) earnings report for its second quarter of fiscal 2027 is scheduled for after the closing bell on Aug. 26. And while plenty of people will be looking at Nvidia's top and bottom lines, I’m more interested in what CEO Jensen Huang will say about the company’s own investments. Nvidia has been incredibly profitable as it became the world’s leading manufacturer of semiconductors used for training and running artificial intelligence programs. The company’s free cash flow in the last 12 months has been $119 billion, up 54% from a year ago, and its gross margins are nearly 75%. Walmart Stock Is More Expensive Than Nvidia Amid Earnings Miss SpaceX Stock Just Crashed Below Its IPO Price: Here’s the Bull Case Nobody Can Ignore A Major Bitcoin Short Squeeze Is Taking MicroStrategy Stock Higher. What Comes Next. Stop Missing Market Moves: Get the FREE Barchart Brief – your midday dose of stock movers, trending sectors, and actionable trade ideas, delivered right to your inbox. Sign Up Now! That’s allowed Nvidia to make plenty of investments in other companies, and it has stakes in Intel (INTC), CoreWeave (CRWV), Nebius Group (NBIS), Iren (IREN), and more. And now it’s in talks with Perplexity AI as it considers taking a stake that would value the AI startup at $30 billion, an increase from $20 billion last year. Perplexity, which is an AI-powered platform that searches the internet and provides answers with numbered source citations, has seen its annualized revenue increase this year from $250 million to more than $750 million. While Nvidia’s investments are intended to ensure companies continue to buy their chips, there are also fears that a downturn in the AI and chip markets would hit Nvidia’s balance sheet. And the circular financing arrangements, in which Nvidia’s investments are used to buy Nvidia chips, could artificially inflate the demand for Nvidia’s GPUs. Huang is sure to have something to say on Nvidia’s investments and partnerships on the company’s earnings call. Let’s see what else investors should expect. Nvidia’s GPUs are the key to generative AI and the current evolution of agentic AI. Its chips are bundled by the thousands to process complex calculations, and its next-generation architecture, Vera Rubin, uses NVLink chip-to-chip interconnects so GPUs and central processing units (CPUs) can share memory space and work efficiently. While the stock has been one of the biggest winners on Wall Street in the last five years, gaining 833%, the last 12 months haven’t been as dynamic. Nvidia shares are up 15.5% - roughly mimicking the performance of the S&P 500 Index ($SPX). But there’s a tradeoff. Shares are at a historically cheap level, with the forward price-to-earnings Non-GAAP ratio of 23.63 times, compared to its five-year mean of 42.85 times. Nvidia’s own guidance from its fiscal first quarter 2027 earnings report calls for revenue of $91 billion, with gross margins of 75%. Analysts who cover the stock are looking for a little more, with the consensus estimate coming in at $92.18 billion versus $46.74 billion a year ago – essentially sales growth of 97%. That’s pretty incredible for a company as mature as Nvidia, but it’s in line with how the company has performed in recent quarters. In the fiscal first quarter, Nvidia’s revenue was $81.61 billion, up 85% from a year ago, and net income was $58.32 billion, up 211% from the previous year. Nvidia’s estimates should be accurate; companies have to place large advance orders with Nvidia for AI hardware months in advance. Major customers such as Amazon.com (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Meta Platforms (META), and Tesla (TSLA) have committed to spend $760 billion this year on AI infrastructure, with much of that going to chips. In addition, Nvidia has reportedly informed its customers about upcoming 15% price increases for chips. Nvidia is a closely covered company in the investment community, but the sentiment surrounding the stock is nearly unanimous. Of 48 analysts following Nvidia, 46 of them have “Buy” ratings, with one suggesting investors sell and one with a “Hold” rating. The consensus price target of $307.38 suggests potential upside of 46.2%. Nvidia’s revenue, profits, and free cash flow are impressive, and its valuation is exceptionally reasonable for a company that is expected to see growth better than 90%. Investors can expect another strong report from Nvidia when it reports earnings Aug. 26. On the date of publication, Patrick Sanders had a position in: NVDA, NBIS. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com

Intel leads chip stocks lower, tumbling 5% while AMD drops 4% as traders trim exposure two sessions before Nvidia reports earnings Wednesday. Nvidia has beaten EPS estimates four straight quarters yet averages a negative 2% day-of move, leaving SOXX vulnerable regardless of Wednesday's headline result. Druckenmiller's Duquesne exited Intel, Micron, and Broadcom by June 30 while opening a new AMD position representing 0.8% of reported assets. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Chip stocks are leading a narrow de-risking Monday morning, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) down 4% to $501.17 while the iShares U.S. Technology ETF (NYSEARCA:IYW) is down 2% to $243.24. Semis are selling roughly twice as hard as broad technology, and that gap marks the session as sector-specific rather than a general tech pullback. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) stock is down 5% to $85.98 and leads the group lower. Meanwhile, AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) stock is down 4% to $454.36, while Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM) stock is down 3% to $406.40. No company-specific headline is driving Intel today, and positioning is being trimmed across the group two sessions before NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) reports its most consequential quarter of the year. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. NVIDIA reports its second-quarter fiscal 2027 results on August 26 after the close, a company-confirmed date. Given NVIDIA's dominant weight in semiconductor benchmarks, the company's guidance sets the tone for the entire complex, and traders are trimming exposure ahead of the release. Options flow points the same way: NVIDIA's full-chain put-call ratio sits at 0.61, with the earnings-week expiration running a heavier 0.82. Intel stock is the most extended large-cap name in the group after an enormous year, and traders holding large gains often trim aggressively into high-variance catalysts. Intel stock was up 144% year to date through Friday's close, which makes it the natural source of funds when investors reduce chip exposure. NVIDIA's own pattern reinforces the caution: the company has beaten Wall Street EPS estimates in four consecutive quarters, yet the average day-of price change across the last five reports was down 2%. The most recent quarter closed down 2% on release despite a 5.4% EPS surprise, and guidance nuance around China Data Center compute and Blackwell cadence has driven the reaction function more than headline numbers (the power, cooling, and networking suppliers behind that Blackwell buildout are the focus of a free report you can grab here). That history suggests a beat alone is unlikely to lift the entire complex. NVIDIA dominates chip-heavy portfolios, and that concentration is doing much of the work today. In IYW, NVIDIA represents 16.2% of net assets as of April 30, ranking as the largest disclosed position, with Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) at 3.8%, AMD at 3.5%, Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) at 3% and Intel at 2.6%. Chip-focused funds like the iShares Semiconductor ETF carry even higher effective NVIDIA exposure, which magnifies pre-earnings positioning shifts. Reddit chatter reflects the caution as well. The iShares Semiconductor ETF sits in bearish sentiment territory at an average score of 32.5, while NVIDIA discussion is neutral with 68 qualified mentions and 665 comments, and Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) sentiment reads neutral at an average score of 48. Investors are stepping back from chip beta rather than adding into a binary event. Separately, Stanley Druckenmiller's Duquesne Family Office disclosed in a Form 13F that positions in Intel, Micron and Broadcom, all opened in the first quarter, were gone as of June 30, and that it opened a position in AMD representing 0.8% of reported assets. Duquesne reported $5.2 billion in U.S. equity holdings at quarter end, disclosed on the standard 45-day lag. These are point-in-time snapshots that don't describe current positioning. On the competitive backdrop, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry intends to request an additional 150 billion yen ($941 million) for Rapidus in its fiscal 2027 budget, per Bloomberg. Rapidus is a state-backed venture founded in 2022 targeting 2-nanometer production by 2027, competing with Taiwan Semiconductor, Samsung and Intel on the leading edge of the foundry roadmap. It's a pending budget request awaiting appropriation. NVIDIA's conference call Wednesday after the close is the sector's next major catalyst. Investors can watch for guidance on China Data Center compute revenue, which NVIDIA excluded from its prior Q2 FY2027 outlook of $91 billion, plus or minus 2%, and any update on total supply-related commitments last disclosed at $119 billion. A language change on China exposure could reprice the entire chip complex within minutes of the release. Given how much of the sector's fate hinges on one report, position sizing matters more than direction here. Shareholders with concentrated chip exposure may want to check for whether their portfolios can absorb an outsized post-earnings gap in either direction, and trimming into strength ahead of a binary catalyst remains a reasonable risk-management stance. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.