The US stock market is showing strong signs of recovery. Recent AI developments have sparked positive momentum, as breakthrough deals create major waves across the market. Tensions between the USA and China have also cooled down.
Walmart and Oracle Race to Dominate AI Services
Walmart made a splash on October 14, 2025, announcing a partnership with OpenAI that brings shopping directly into ChatGPT through a new “Instant Checkout” feature. Customers can find and buy products using conversational language while linking their existing Walmart and Sam’s Club accounts. According to TradingView data, Walmart’s stock jumped nearly 5% to a record $107.21, adding roughly $50 billion to its market value. Morgan Stanley analysts believe this partnership could increase Walmart’s EBIT margin by up to 40%.
While Walmart is focused on retail innovation, Oracle has been building the infrastructure to power AI operations on a massive scale. The company reported in September 2025 that its remaining performance obligations climbed to $455 billion, mainly driven by massive AI contracts. Oracle is part of the “Stargate Project,” a $500 billion effort alongside OpenAI, Microsoft, and NVIDIA to build 20 AI data centers across the United States. Oracle and OpenAI sealed a $300 billion, five-year deal in July 2025, cementing Oracle’s role as a critical infrastructure provider. The company has also set up one of the world’s largest AI SuperComputers with up to 65,000 NVIDIA H200 GPUs.
Looking to diversify its chip suppliers, Oracle partnered with AMD on October 14, 2025, to deploy 50,000 AMD Instinct MI450 Series GPUs by Q3 2026. However, challenges emerged when reports on October 7 showed that Oracle’s AI cloud business operates with thin gross profit margins of just 14%, compared to its traditional software business at 70% margins. Oracle’s shares dropped 7.1% as investors questioned profitability in the capital-heavy AI race.
Chip Makers Battle for AI Market Leadership
Competition among chip makers has reached new levels as companies try to lead the AI revolution. AMD made headlines with a partnership with OpenAI that increased its stock by 23.7%. The deal allows OpenAI to use AMD chips and gain up to 160 million AMD shares if performance goals are reached. This setup helps both sides grow their positions in the AI market.
Meanwhile, NVIDIA works hard to maintain its dominant position through smart investments. The company invested $200 million in Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, as part of a $2 billion fundraising round. NVIDIA will supply and own the GPUs used in xAI’s upcoming “Colossus 2” data center, which xAI will rent for five years. This creative arrangement guarantees long-term demand for NVIDIA’s chips and strengthens its foothold in the market. Still, competition is clearly intensifying. NVIDIA’s stock dipped slightly on October 15, 2025, after Oracle announced its AMD partnership.
Massive Infrastructure Investments Power AI Expansion
On October 16, 2025, a group led by BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, along with Abu Dhabi’s MGX and the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (which includes NVIDIA and Microsoft), agreed to buy Aligned Data Centers for about $40 billion. This is AIP’s first significant investment, starting with $30 billion in equity and potentially reaching $100 billion with debt financing. The deal highlights how financial powerhouses are betting big on the physical infrastructure needed to support AI growth.
Brookfield and Bloom Energy announced a $5 billion partnership on October 13, 2025, to create “AI factories” powered by Bloom’s fuel cell technology. This deal tackles a problem that current electrical grids struggle to handle: the massive power needs of AI data centers. Together, these partnerships paint a picture of an industry preparing for explosive AI growth across every layer of the technology stack.
Trump Xi Summit Holds Key to Market Direction
President Donald Trump’s social media activity has created dramatic swings in the US stock market, often overshadowing positive AI developments. The S&P 500 was trading just points away from setting a new record high when a single post from Trump wiped out $2 trillion in market value.
Bespoke Investment Group tracked the damage from that post, which caused the S&P 500 to drop 2.7% by the New York Stock Exchange closing bell. This marked the worst single-day performance since early April, when markets were reeling from Trump’s “liberation day” tariff announcement. As Trump posted, “We want to work with the Chinese,” the mood has shifted recently, suggesting a more collaborative approach. Markets responded positively to the softer tone, recovering some of their losses.
The late October meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could swing markets in either direction. A productive meeting that eases trade tensions could spark a strong rally, boosting stocks alongside the AI momentum. However, new tariff announcements or escalating trade disputes could make markets tumble again.
What Investors Should Watch Next
The Trump-Xi summit and ongoing trade negotiations will likely cause short-term swings in market performance. However, companies building AI infrastructure are solving real-world problems and laying the groundwork for sustained growth. Short-term political noise shouldn’t distract investors from AI’s long-term opportunity for the stock market.