Nvidia’s Strategic Investments Show Mixed Results
Nvidia, currently the world’s most valuable company, made some pretty substantial moves in the last quarter of 2025. They poured nearly $8 billion into Intel, which seems like an interesting choice given their own position in the chip market. I mean, investing in a competitor? That’s not something you see every day.
But the numbers tell the story. Since early September, Intel’s stock jumped from around $24 to over $46. That’s close to a 92% gain in just six months. Not bad at all. Maybe Nvidia saw something others didn’t, or perhaps they’re playing a longer game here.
Telecom Infrastructure Bet Pays Off
They also put about $1.08 billion into Nokia, the telecommunications infrastructure company. That investment has done well too – Nokia’s stock climbed from $4.23 to $7.57 during the same period. That’s roughly a 79% increase.
So together, these two investments total about $9 billion and have both delivered strong returns. But here’s the thing – not everything Nvidia touched turned to gold.
Not All Investments Worked Out
They opened a new position in Synopsys, a software company, worth around $2.26 billion. That one hasn’t worked out so well – the stock dropped about 24% since September. It happens, right? Even the biggest companies make investment choices that don’t pan out.
Some of their existing holdings took hits too. Their stake in CoreWeave fell in value by almost half, from $3.32 billion to $1.58 billion. Nebius also dropped from $133.65 million to about $99.65 million.
Portfolio Cleanup and Strategic Shifts
What I find particularly interesting is what they sold. Between the third and fourth quarters, Nvidia completely exited positions in four companies: Arm Holdings, Applied Digital Corporation, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, and WeRide Inc. The combined value of those stakes was about $387.64 million.
That tells me they’re being selective. They’re not just throwing money at everything – they’re making strategic choices, cutting losses where needed, and doubling down on what they believe in.
I think what we’re seeing here is a company with significant cash reserves making calculated bets. The Intel investment is especially noteworthy. Maybe they see potential in Intel’s manufacturing capabilities, or perhaps there’s some strategic partnership in the works that we don’t know about yet.
The telecom infrastructure play with Nokia makes sense too, given how much data center and AI infrastructure relies on strong networking. It’s all connected, really.
But it’s worth remembering that past performance doesn’t guarantee future results. These gains happened over six months, but markets can change quickly. Still, for now, Nvidia’s investment team seems to have made some pretty good calls with these two particular stocks.
