WSJ Your Money Briefing - What’s News in Markets: IPO Excitement, Chip Fatigue, the Decline of Dividends

Episode Date: May 23, 2026

Which tech giant will kick off the next IPO boom? And why weren’t investors impressed by Nvidia’s blowout quarter? Plus, how is the AI frenzy changing the way investors get paid? Host Imani Moise discusses the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them.Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Number one trusted based on August 2025 proprietary survey among real estate professionals. Hey, listeners, your money briefing is still on a break, but we'll be back with more personal finance information for you in the future. Until then, here's the news moving the markets this week. Hey, listeners, it's Saturday, May 23rd. I'm Imani-Mauese for the Wall Street Journal. And this is what's news in markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's dive in. Markets spent this week chasing the next big thing.

From AI to outer space and quantum computing, investors poured money into people. futuristic bets while brushing aside lingering concerns about the economy. A new $2 billion federal investment in quantum computing helped fuel rallies in companies tied to the emerging technology. Nvidia beat Wall Street expectations for the 14th straight quarter, according to data from FACCET. And SpaceX prepared to launch what could be the biggest IPO in history. That lifted space-related stocks across the market. Here on Earth, warning signs about the U.S. consumer continued to pile up. Retail giants, including Walmart, Target, and Home Depot all pointed to increasingly budget-conscious shoppers this week,

while high gas prices and, lingering uncertainty around the conflict in the Middle East, continued to weigh on consumer sentiment. Still, investors saw more to be excited about than scared of. The Dow gained 2.1% and ended the week at a new record high, while the NASDAQ rose about half a percent. The S&P 500 increased 0.9%, notching its eighth straight week of gains, the longest weekly winning streak since 2023. Four months, Wall Street has been obsessing over AI's biggest private companies from the sidelines. But this week, it finally got a meaningful glint behind the curtain. Three of Silicon Valley's hottest startups moved closer to going public,

setting the stage for what could become the biggest IPO boom since the dot-com era. Elon Musk's SpaceX filed paperwork for a blockbuster stock offering that could raise as much as $80 billion and potentially make Musk the world's first trillionaire. Meanwhile, Open AI, which was recently valued at more than $850 billion, is preparing to file for its own IPO soon. And rival Anthropic surprise investors by forecasting its first ever quarterly operating profit, a rare feat in the cash-burning AI industry. While investors wait for those monster debuts, many are looking for other ways to cash in on the frenzy. European satellite stocks surge this week after SpaceX is filing ignited excitement across the industry. Francis Udelsat jumped nearly 35%

while German satellite developer OHB climbed more than 28%. Investors' obsession with finding the next big market winner may be creating a problem for the company sitting on top of the mountain. Shares in Nvidia, currently the most valuable company in the world with the valuation of more than $5 trillion, fell more than 4% over the week despite the chip giant reporting another blockbuster quarter. CEO Jensen Huang told investors that, that demand for AI chips has gone, quote, parabolic as companies race to build AI agents and massive data centers.

The company posted more than $81 billion in quarterly revenue, up 85% from a year ago, while profits more than tripled. But investors appear more interested in finding the next Nvidia than rewarding the current one. Take Intel, for example, the one struggling chipmaker has suddenly become one of Wall Street's hottest AI comeback bets. Shares in the company's surge 10% this week and are now up more than 220% this year, as investors bet Intel's processors could play a larger role in the next phase of the AI buildout. The fatigue isn't limited to Nvidia. Analysts say Wall Street has developed a kind of apathy toward the biggest AI winners to date, with investors increasingly rotating into underdogs they believe have more room to run.

According to Goldman Sachs, the AI chip trade has become so dominant that semiconductor companies now make up nearly 20% of the S&P 500, the highest concentration on record. And AI isn't just reshaping stock indexes. It's starting to reshape how investors make money. For decades, investors could count on tech companies eventually rewarding shareholders through dividends and massive stock buyback programs, but the AI boom is changing that equation. Dividend investing has lagged the broader market this year,

as excitement around artificial intelligence pushes companies to reinvest profits into data centers, chips, and computing power, instead of returning that cash to shareholders. And because big tech has accounted for such a large share of recent market gains, those decisions carry extra weight. Even stock buybacks, one of Wall Street's favorite drivers of share prices in recent years, are starting to slow. Excluding Nvidia, buybacks among the so-called Magnificent Seven

fell more than 70% from a year ago in the latest quarter, as companies redirected cash toward the increasingly expensive AI arms race. Analysts say the trend reflects a growing reality inside big tech. The need to spend on AI infrastructure is crowding out other priorities, including keeping shareholders sweet with buybacks and dividends. And now you know what's news and markets this week. You can read about more stocks that moved on the week's news in our live markets coverage on WSJ.com.

Today's show was produced by Alexis Moore with supervising producer Melanie Roy. I'm Imani-Mau-Ease. Have a great weekend and catch you next Saturday. Madamy Holmes' bike for brain health supporting Baycrest returns on May 31st for its fifth anniversary with a new start and finish at the Aga Khan Museum. Join thousands of cyclists as we take over the DVP and Gardner Expressway in support of dementia research and brain health. Riders of all abilities are welcome, and both regular bikes and e-bikes can participate. Bring your friends, family, or corporate team, and make an impact.

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