Nvidia shares enter one of the year’s most closely watched earnings reports under unusual pressure. NVDA closed Friday at $214.75, extending its decline to six consecutive sessions: the stock’s longest losing streak since 2022.
The pullback remains modest in percentage terms. Nvidia has fallen about 4.7% from its Aug. 13 close of $225.30, with most daily losses below 1%. Still, the persistent selling stands out after AI stocks helped lift the broader technology sector earlier this month.
Earnings Growth Is Not the Main Concern
Nvidia will report fiscal second-quarter results on Wednesday, Aug. 26. The company has guided for approximately $91 billion in revenue, plus or minus 2%, after posting record first-quarter revenue of $81.6 billion.
Wall Street remains overwhelmingly bullish. Analysts tracked by TipRanks have maintained a Strong Buy consensus, while Bank of America has kept a $350 target. That optimism is consistent with the longer-term Nvidia forecast built around sustained demand for Blackwell and the upcoming Rubin platform.
Yet expectations are now high enough that another earnings beat may not automatically translate into a rally. Nvidia has repeatedly delivered strong results while investors shifted their attention toward future spending, margins and the sustainability of the AI infrastructure boom.
Financing Strategy Adds a New Risk
The latest concern centers on how aggressively Nvidia is helping finance the ecosystem that buys its hardware.
On Aug. 10, the company announced partnerships with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR aimed at mobilizing more than $500 billion of third-party capital for AI infrastructure.
Scrutiny intensified after Nvidia agreed to provide up to $105 billion in guarantees supporting OpenAI’s 20-year lease of a major Ohio data center, according to Reuters. Critics argue that arrangements in which Nvidia helps fund customers that ultimately purchase Nvidia systems increase circular-financing risk.
At the same time, the company is moving deeper into the physical bottlenecks surrounding AI. Nvidia disclosed a minority investment Friday in Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a developer focused on securing land and grid power for large data centers.
The strategy reflects a broader shift already visible in Nvidia’s AI expansion: securing power, sites and financing is becoming almost as important as selling chips.
Wednesday’s report therefore has a higher bar than revenue growth alone. Investors will be looking for evidence that Nvidia can keep expanding at extraordinary rates without assuming disproportionate financial risk to sustain the AI spending cycle.
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