- Wall Street endorses Jensen Huang’s “big concept” for AI chips.
- But Chinese chips could prove a risk if a price war emerges.
- Nvidia announces its first open source AI model since Huang defended the model.
- Pakistan said that the U.S. and Iran are close to a deal. Oil prices are still rising, showing market skepticism.
Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks to members of the media following the company’s “Japan AI Ecosystem” reception in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, July 16, 2026.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Hello, this is Hui Jie writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open
After three years of Big Tech splashing out on AI investments, Nvidia is looking to shake up the industry
The chip giant has tied up with an all star cast of six U.S. asset managers to back the next phase of the AI buildout, in essence, tapping their wallets instead
Nvidia also launched its first open- since CEO Jensen Huang joined most of his tech peers in urging the U.S. government to support open models
What you need to know today
In the AI gold rush, Nvidia already sells the picks and shovels. Now it wants Wall Street to help finance the mine
Nvidia had announced a tie-up with six powerhouses on Wall Street, who said they’re willing to raise $500 billion (and potentially more) for the construction and build-out of new AI factories, as chipmakers and hyperscalers race to meet seemingly endless demand
So there’s a fundamental shift: AI infrastructure has become a new asset class
However, this path is not without risks
Key to CEO Jensen Huang’s plan is one crucial assumption: that Nvidia’s graphics processing units will hold their value over time, behaving more like traditional hard assets than fast-depreciating consumer electronics
Ben Emons, founder of FedWatch Advisors, told CNBC the single biggest threat to Nvidia’s financing model comes from China, which is rapidly ramping up domestic compute capacity and could choose to flood the market with low-cost silicon in a price war
If Chinese production pushes hardware prices into a freefall, the collateral backing hundreds of billions in private loans could erode far faster than the terms of the debt itself, leaving investors exposed to losses
Nvidia is finding a way to continue growing, though. The company announced its first openly
The model, known as Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, is “lightweight” and can run on a single graphics processing unit on a PC
For Nvidia, open-o run on GPUs, and the lower prices can serve to boost usage over proprietary models from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic
Still stuck in the Strait
Away from tech, the on-again, off-again nature of the Iran deal continues to stalk geopolitics
The U.S. and Iran are close to “some sort of arrangement” over the Strait of Hormuz, a senior Pakistani minister reportedly said Tuesday, offering another glimmer of hope for a deal even as the warring powers appear to be hardening their negotiating stances
Oil markets did not appear to buy this development, with U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rising 1.3% to close at $83.20 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, advanced 1.36% to settle at $88.91 per barrel
Prices have gained more than 6% this week as hopes fade for a deal to increase ship traffic through Hormuz
Asia stock markets were mixed in early trade, while U.S. futures were up as investors await key inflation data on Wednesday stateside
For now, the Hormuz deal has the rhythm of a faulty light at night: on again, off again, and never quite bright enough for oil markets to be sure if its safe
And finally
Manus to return as independent company after China forced Meta to unwind $2 billion deal
Manus said Tuesday it will “soon resume operating as an independent company,” after Chinese regulators in April demanded Meta unwind its $2 billion acquisition of the artificial intelligence startup
Last December, Meta announced it acquired Manus, a developer of general purpose AI agents that was founded in China in 2022 before relocating to Singapore. The deal quickly attracted scrutiny from Beijing and Washington, with Chinese officials investigating whether it violated the country’s rules on foreign investment
The country’s National Development and Reform Commission issued its decision in April, instructing the parties to withdraw the transaction.Â
