NVIDIA's stock reached an all-time high, rising 2.9% after two months of declines, with market capitalization approaching $5.7 trillion. The rally was driven by optimism about AI-driven semiconductor demand and the company's announcement of a $150 billion increase to its buyback plan. Year-to-date, the stock has gained approximately 27%.
U.S. President Trump stated the government may consider taking equity stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic, similar to its Intel investment, while ruling out nationalization of AI companies.
U.S. stock markets opened slightly higher with the Dow Jones up 0.14%, S&P 500 up 0.22%, and Nasdaq up 0.46%. Accenture surged 17.8% on strong fourth-quarter results and positive guidance, while Google rose 2.4% following its Gemini 4 AI model launch. Micron Technology declined 1.8% after missing earnings expectations.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the creation of the Autonomous Combat Command to enhance military capabilities in drones, AI, and command systems. The Pentagon plans to double autonomous combat spending to $74 billion in its budget request.
Animoca Brands' Moca Foundation and Moca Network launched Moca Chain mainnet, enabling users and AI agents to share verifiable credentials across applications while maintaining control over their data. The platform allows institutions to issue tamper-proof credentials linked to digital identities, and introduced AIR, a unified interface for businesses to access users and AI agents with nine partners already integrated.
Meta is applying for substantial U.S. research and development tax credits for its AI data centers, a strategy that reduced its taxes by nearly $4 billion last year. However, internal accountants and tax experts warn the classification of AI data centers as R&D projects may carry legal risks and is unusually aggressive.