Nvidia Eyes Perplexity Stake; Marvell Downgraded After Run

This update is a roundup of same-day reporting from the linked sources below, with editorial context from the CPJ Stock Desk.

Tech stocks rebounded Tuesday morning as investors positioned ahead of Nvidia’s earnings report and a key inflation print, with fresh deal talk around Nvidia adding another layer of interest to an already closely watched week.

Key points

Nvidia is reportedly in talks to invest in AI search startup Perplexity at a valuation above $30 billion, more than 50% above Perplexity’s prior valuation.
Nvidia is also in early discussions with South Korean chip firm Rebellions about a potential AI chip partnership, following a meeting between Jensen Huang and Rebellions CEO Sunghyun Park.
Marvell Technology received a rating downgrade from a Seeking Alpha analyst, who argued the AI inflection is real but the stock has already priced it in.
Xiaomi unveiled the Xring O3 system-on-a-chip, an in-house AI mobile chip designed to challenge Qualcomm and MediaTek.
The Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF fell Monday as investors worried about China’s growing competition in chip markets.

Is Nvidia building an AI ecosystem through investment?

The Perplexity talks are worth watching beyond the headline valuation. Nvidia reportedly seeking a stake in Perplexity at over $30 billion signals that the company is not limiting its strategy to hardware. Perplexity is one of the more prominent AI-native search products, and an Nvidia investment would give the chipmaker a direct financial interest in an end-use application running on its own GPU infrastructure.

Separately, the discussions with Rebellions follow a pattern of Nvidia engaging with regional AI chip players rather than simply competing with them. Rebellions is a Seoul-based AI chip startup. The nature of a potential partnership has not been disclosed, and the talks appear to be at an early stage. Investors should treat this as exploratory at this point.

Together, these two conversations suggest Nvidia is actively working to extend its influence beyond GPU sales, both up the stack into AI applications and across the broader chip ecosystem. Whether that translates into announced deals is unclear.

Marvell: what the downgrade actually says

The Marvell downgrade is notable precisely because the analyst is not disputing the underlying business improvement. Q1 results validated an AI-driven earnings inflection, and Marvell has genuinely transitioned into a core AI infrastructure supplier, particularly in custom silicon and data center networking. The argument for downgrading is purely about valuation: the stock has run ahead of where fundamentals justify buying.

This is a useful distinction for investors. A downgrade on valuation grounds is different from a downgrade on business concerns. Marvell’s AI revenue trajectory appears intact. The question analysts are now asking is whether the market has already rewarded that trajectory fully. That is a harder call to make ahead of additional earnings clarity, and investors should weigh the downgrade in that context rather than reading it as a negative signal on the company’s AI positioning.

Xiaomi enters the AI chip race

Xiaomi’s Xring O3 is the latest example of a major consumer electronics company moving to reduce dependence on third-party chip suppliers. The chip focuses on power-efficient image processing and on-device AI capabilities. For Qualcomm and MediaTek investors, the near-term revenue impact from one OEM developing its own silicon is likely limited. The longer-term trend, however, is real: as AI capabilities become central to mobile devices, more manufacturers have the incentive to control that layer themselves.

The Monday selloff in the Direxion Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF reflects the same underlying anxiety. China’s accelerating investment in domestic chip design is being priced as a competitive risk to US chip market share, even as short-term demand for AI infrastructure hardware remains strong.

What comes next

All of the above is happening in the shadow of Nvidia’s earnings report. US equities opened higher Tuesday as tech recovered from Monday’s dip, with traders also watching for a PCE inflation print that could shift expectations for Federal Reserve rate policy. Nvidia’s results will likely set the tone for the entire AI hardware sector in the near term, and the deal-making headlines around Perplexity and Rebellions may get a closer read once the earnings picture is clearer.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.