Shares of Nvidia and AMD moved in opposite directions Friday after Arista Networks CEO Jayshree Ullal told investors on an earnings call that some AI deployments are shifting toward AMD's chips. Nvidia shares fell almost 3%, while AMD gained close to 1%. The moves were modest in size, but notable given how completely Nvidia has dominated the market for the graphics processors used in AI since the current boom took off a little over three years ago.
Ullal said that a year ago, roughly 99% of the deployments her company saw were built around Nvidia chips. Today, she said, AMD accounts for about 20% to 25% of those deployments as customers diversify. Nvidia still commands roughly 90% of the overall AI chip market and remains the most valuable company in the United States, with a market capitalization above $4.5 trillion; AMD is worth about $335 billion after its stock climbed 85% over the past twelve months.
Part of the shift traces back to networking rather than chips alone. Arista makes the Ethernet switching gear that links AI accelerators together, and Nvidia has increasingly built that capability itself, reducing how much of Arista's technology its largest customers need. "Not the end of the world but obviously being designed in with Nvidia helps, and they are being designed out, if not fully, to a degree," said Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies.
Earlier in the week, a different AI-infrastructure supplier sent the opposite signal. Vertiv, which builds power and cooling systems for data centers and has been expanding its work with Nvidia, jumped more than 14% in Wednesday's premarket session after reporting fourth-quarter results. Adjusted earnings per share rose 37% to $1.36, ahead of analyst estimates, on revenue of $2.88 billion, up 23% from a year earlier. Orders climbed even faster: organic orders rose roughly 252% from the same quarter last year, pushing Vertiv's backlog to $15 billion, more than double where it stood twelve months ago.
"Our fourth quarter performance demonstrates Vertiv's leadership position in an increasingly complex and demanding data center market," said Giordano Albertazzi, the company's chief executive. He pointed to "deep collaborations with semiconductor industry leaders" as one reason for the momentum, and the company guided to 27% to 29% organic sales growth for 2026.
Away from Vertiv, Nvidia's own shares have spent recent months consolidating in a narrower band, roughly between 175 and 195, as investors wait for the company's next earnings report on February 25. Friday's dip pulled shares toward the bottom of that range. Whether the Arista comments mark a lasting shift in AI chip demand or a modest rebalancing at the margins will not be clear until more of Nvidia's customers report their own results.
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