Nvidia isn't just printing money off the AI boom — it's now printing history. The Santa Clara chip titan announced Monday that its board approved a jaw-dropping $150 billion increase to its stock buyback program, pushing its total remaining repurchase authorization to $235 billion, the largest such increase any American company has ever unveiled, according to Nvidia's own announcement.

To put that number in perspective: it blows past Apple's previous record-setting $110 billion buyback authorization from 2024, according to Reuters' reporting on the move. Nvidia says it expects to burn through the full $235 billion pile buying back its own shares by the end of fiscal year 2028.

Shares jumped roughly 2.4% to close at $230.57 on the news — notable because it came on a day the Nasdaq dropped 0.9% and the S&P 500 fell 0.8%, per CNBC's market coverage. Nvidia's market capitalization sits above $5.5 trillion, roughly half a trillion dollars ahead of second-place Apple.

Cash Machine, Cheap Stock

The move is a flex of raw financial muscle. Nvidia's chips power the AI data-center buildout that has minted trillions in market value across Big Tech, and the company is generating cash faster than it can spend it — even while continuing to plow money into next-generation chip development. Reuters noted the buyback lands as Nvidia's stock trades near its lowest earnings multiple in more than a decade, suggesting management thinks Wall Street is undervaluing the AI boom's staying power.

"NVIDIA's growth is being driven by a once-in-a-generation platform shift to AI and accelerated computing. Our cash generation gives us the capacity to invest in the technologies that advance this transformation and return capital to shareholders," said founder and CEO Jensen Huang.

Analysts read the buyback as a confidence signal rather than a sign of slowing growth. "The AI buildout won't continue at its current pace forever, but Nvidia is signaling confidence that demand for its hardware and services has staying power," Jacob Bourne, an analyst at Emarketer, said. Gil Luria of D.A. Davidson put it more bluntly, noting Huang "has so much cash and so much cash flow" that even after massive capital investments, there's plenty left to hand back to shareholders — and that Huang "knows his stock is cheap."

Buybacks reduce the number of shares outstanding, typically boosting earnings per share and signaling that management sees the stock as undervalued — but critics of the practice argue companies could instead pour that cash into R&D, wages or acquisitions. Nvidia has not said how quickly it plans to execute the new authorization, only that it targets completion by fiscal 2028.

The announcement lands the same week investors are digesting a fresh round of macro data and geopolitical headlines, with traders watching whether the AI trade — which has carried the broader market's gains through 2026 — still has room to run, or whether Nvidia's record-breaking cash return is a peak signal in disguise.

Demand for Nvidia's chips is also drawing scrutiny well beyond Wall Street: a separate investigation traces how a blacklisted Chinese server maker kept obtaining America's most advanced AI chips despite export bans, underscoring just how fiercely the hardware behind this buyback is being fought over.