The Rundown - OpenAI Changes Strategy, Nvidia Predicts $1 Trillion in AI Revenue

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Market update for Tuesday March 17, 2026Check out the Public app for incredible investing tools and to support the show (LINK)Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions.In today’s episode:Nvidia unveils new chips and expands partnership with UberOpenAI cuts back on “side projects”Delta jumps on strong travel demandEli Lilly falls after analyst downgrade on weight loss marketThe SEC considers ending quarterly earnings reporting

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zaid Admani, and today is Tuesday, March 17th. In today's episode, we'll tell you the big announcements coming from Nvidia's GTC conference. We'll also tell you why OpenAI is hitting the panic button. Again, then stick around to the end of the show to find out why we might not be getting quarterly earnings reports in the near future. We got a great show for you today. Let's go.

Mark, it's kicked off the week on a strong note, bouncing back from last week's sell-off. The S&P 500 was up 1% on Monday, while the NASDAG did even better, jumping 1.2%. At this point, the playbook is pretty simple. When oil prices go down, stocks go up. And that's exactly what happened on Monday. Oil dropped about 5%, with WTI falling to around $93 a barrel. as investors starting to feel a little bit less panicked about the Middle East situation and the Strait of Hormuz reopening.

So that was enough to spark a relief rally across the board. Literally every sector finished in the green yesterday. You know, when you zoom out over the last couple of weeks, I think it's pretty impressive that the S&P 500 is only down 2.6% since the start of the war back on February 28th, and the NASDAQ is only down 1.2%. The same can't be said about international stocks though. Stock markets in Japan, South Korea, France, and Switzerland are all down 8%. to 10% this month. So U.S. stocks are outperforming here. And I think a big reason for that is the

U.S. economy is probably less exposed to the energy shock from the war compared to the rest of the world. So, you know, I'm not that surprised to see U.S. stocks hold up better compared to international stocks in this environment. What I am surprised to see, though, is crypto outperforming gold. Bitcoin has gone up 10% to $74,000 since the war started, while Ethereum has gone up 20% crossing the $2,300 range. Gold on the other hand is down 5% dropping to near $5,000 an ounce. So yeah, interesting things are happening in the markets right now. And then looking ahead, we have a Fed meeting coming up tomorrow and some inflation data coming out as well. We're staying on top of all of it.

So make sure you guys are subscribed to the podcast and tuning in every day to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines. Starting with Nvidia. Envidia's CEO Jensen Huang took center stage at Nvidia's annual. GTC Developer Conference on Monday, kicking off a four-day event with a two-and-a-half-hour keynote speech designed to remind the audience and Wall Street that the company is still the dominant player when it comes to AI. Jensen was decked out on his classic leather jacket, making some bold statements. The one making the headlines was that Nvidia now expects

to generate at least $1 trillion in revenue from their Blackwell and Rubin AI chips through the end of 2027. That's a big jump from their previous forecast of 500,000. billion in revenue through 2026. So they think the AI boom will extend into another year. Jensen also showed off some new products, including a new CPU and a new AI system built using technology from a startup called GROC. Now, just to be clear here, I'm not talking about Elon Musk's GROC chatbot. This is GROC with a Q. It's a chip startup that NVIDIA basically absorbed through a licensing deal back in December. This acquisition by Nvidia was very underrated because Groch makes chips that are designed to make AI inference way faster.

And Jensen thinks that we are approaching an inference inflection moment when it comes to AI computing. See, inference is when AI models actually answer your questions or run tasks. And the reason the demand for that is exploding is because of the rise of AI agents. So now, Nvidia is building a full stack product for inference, combining their upcoming Vera Rubin chips with their new GROC power processors to position themselves as the dominant player for inference. And looking beyond just chips, NVIDIA also shared some details about their new robo-taxy partnership with Uber. The two companies plan to deploy a fleet of robo-taxies powered by NVIDIA's autonomous driving software onto Uber's right-hailing network. This will initially start in San Francisco and L.A. in 27 and then expand to 28 cities globally by 2028.

This was a big boost for Uber stock. It's up more than 5% this morning on this news. So yeah, you know, Jensen is doing what he does best, putting on a great show, making big promises, and giving investors. just enough to stay excited. You know, Nvidia's stock is down around 2% on the year heading into the event, but at a $4.4 trillion market cap, Nvidia is still the most valuable company in the world. Now, speaking of AI, let's talk about Open AI

because there's some interesting stuff happening behind the scenes. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Open AI is planning a major strategy shift. They're going to pull back on all their experimental side projects and refocus on things that actually make money, which are coding tools and enterprise customers. The last few months have been a reality check for OpenAI because over the last year or so,

they have launched so much stuff and most of it never really gained any traction. There was the video app SORA, which was hot for a minute, but then that fell off. They also launched a web browser that nobody used, and they're also working on consumer hardware. But now OpenAI's CEO of applications, Fiji Sumo, told staff in an all-hands meeting last week

the company can't afford to get distracted by what she called side quests. She wants the company to nail productivity, especially for enterprise users. I mean, she straight up said the success of Anthropic was a wake-up call for OpenAI. Anthropic is the maker of Claude, and they gained some serious traction in the enterprise space

thanks to tools like Claude Code and Co-work, which are becoming go-to tools for developers and companies. And the reality is selling software to enterprise clients is a better business model. These companies are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, for a boost in productivity. You know, it's better than selling a $20 a month subscription service to consumers. And Open AI is feeling the pressure to continue to grow the revenues to justify their insane

valuation. So it seems like Open AI is pivoting to be an enterprise company. And they're already starting to gain some ground here. Their updated Codex coding app now has more than 2 million weekly active users, which is up nearly 4x since the start of the year. But I wonder with Open AI focusing on the enterprise space, what is going to happen to chat GPD. I feel like most non-techie people don't even know what Claude or Gemini is, but almost everyone knows what chat GPT is. So I wonder if this opens the door for maybe someone like Google to end up

dominating the consumer AI market. Definitely something to keep an eye on. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of Delta are up this morning after the airline raised its sales outlook for the first quarter. The company says they're seeing high travel demand. In fact, they've had eight of the top 10 sales day in the company's history this quarter alone. So even with a war going on and oil prices going up, people are still booking flights. Now, jet fuel prices have gone up and that's expected to cost Delta an extra $400 million. But thanks to the strong bookings and higher ticket prices, Delta still expects to hit their Q and profit outlook, which was a big sigh of relief for investors.

As a result, shares of Delta are up around 4% this morning at the time of this recording. Now, on the flip side, Eli Lilly is sliding today after HSBC downgraded the stock and slashed their price target from $1,070 down to $850. HSBC thinks the weight loss drug market just isn't going to be as massive as everyone expects. On top of that, pricing pressure is heating up. Nova Nordus, the maker of Ozempic and WeGovie, is getting more aggressive on slashing prices. As a result, shares of Eli Lilly are down around 2% this morning at the time of this recording. Let's wrap the show with the fun fact. The SEC might be getting rid of quarterly earnings reports.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the SEC is preparing a proposal that would not require public companies to report earnings every quarter. Instead, companies would have the option to report just twice a year. Now, selfishly, I'm not a fan of this plan. Beyond the fact that we cover earnings on this show, just as an investor myself, I want more information.

Having to wait six months to see how a company is doing financially, you know, is a long time to wait. But then on the other hand, I can see the benefits of this thing as well. You know, quarterly earnings forced CEOs to obsess over short-term numbers instead of thinking long-term. On top of that, preparing quarterly reports is time-consuming and expensive, which could be leading to fewer companies going public these days. So I think both sides have valid arguments, and we'll see what happens. This SEC proposal still has to go through a public comment period, and then the SEC has to vote on it. so nothing is changing anytime soon. And look, even if this passes,

most companies could still decide to report quarterly. That's what happened in Europe and the UK, which got rid of quarterly requirements a decade ago. Many of their companies still report every quarter. But, you know, if companies do report to a six-month reporting period, I mean, we can see some wild swings in the stock price after their earnings report. Let me know in the comments on what you guys think. Are you in favor of the six-month reporting,

or do you prefer the quarterly reports that we have today? I'm going to guess like 80% of the vote is going to be in front. favor of the quarterly reports. So yeah, vote in today's poll on Spotify and drop your comment as well. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. If you did, and you have like five extra seconds, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you listen to your podcast. And if you are listening on Spotify, don't forget to vote in today's Spotify poll. Leave us a comment on Spotify. All that engagement really does help us out. And it helps other people find out.

the show. Thank you guys so much for listening, watching, and commenting. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow. Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play Ojo. The online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep. With no wagering requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum Whitrauds. Hey, I just won. Woo-hoo! Feel the fun!

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