Nvidia's board approved an $80 billion stock repurchase program on May 21 and raised the quarterly dividend 25-fold to $0.25 per share from $0.01. With $39 billion remaining under a prior authorization, Nvidia commands roughly $119 billion in total buyback capacity — one of the largest capital-return commitments in technology sector history. The announcement followed Q1 FY2027 results that beat analyst consensus on AI data-center GPU demand.
US 30-year Treasury yields hit 5.11%, clearing the psychologically key 5% level, while the 10-year note reached 4.6% intraday before settling near 4.577%. The S&P 500 fell 1.24% to 7,408.50 as technology stocks led declines — Nvidia $NVDA off 4.42%, Intel $INTC down 6.18%. Deutsche Bank flagged the post-earnings lull and Middle East tensions as catalysts for defensive positioning.
AI chip startup Cerebras Systems jumped nearly 70% on its May 15 market debut, closing with a market cap of roughly $95 billion — one of the largest opening-day valuations in U.S. IPO history. The blockbuster listing reignited investor interest in mega-private-company IPOs including SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, while signaling a credible rival to Nvidia's data-center dominance.
The United States approved approximately 10 Chinese companies to purchase Nvidia's H200 AI accelerator — the second-most powerful chip in Nvidia's lineup — marking the first meaningful relaxation of semiconductor export controls since 2022. Nvidia stock rose about 2%, and Korean HBM suppliers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix rallied on the downstream demand implications.