Tech stocks today: Meta social media trial kicks off, chip stocks fall

LIVE Tech stocks today: Meta social media trial kicks off, chip stocks fall Tech stocks today: Meta social media trial kicks off, chip stocks fall · Yahoo Finance Daniel Howley · Technology Editor Updated Tue, August 18, 2026 at 4:20 PM GMT+2 1 min read NVDA META ^IXIC Tech stocks fell in early trading Tuesday, as the Nasdaq dropped more than 1%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also fell more than 5%. Meta's latest social media addiction trial kicks off in Oakland, Calif.

, today. A collection of 29 state attorneys general is suing the social media giant over claims that it purposely developed its services to keep children online as long as possible and caused psychological harm. Meta claims that the trial could leave it exposed to as much as $1.

4 trillion in damages, but the state attorneys general dispute that number. OpenAI on Tuesday announced its ChatGPT for Teens. Designed to provide improved protection for teens, the company says ChatGPT for Teens includes built-in protections for younger users that limit exposure to harmful content.

It also regularly reminds teens to take breaks and works to prevent them from forming relationships with the AI. Rival Anthropic, meanwhile, is reportedly pulling in huge revenue numbers. According to Bloomberg , the company saw its preliminary quarterly revenue jump 14x to $11.

5 billion from $787 million a year ago. The AI lab is preparing to go public in September or October, and The Financial Times reports that investors are targeting a $2 trillion valuation. Also in AI, Nvidia announced it entered into an agreement to back an SB Energy and OpenAI data center in Ohio for $105 billion.

Nvidia's contribution will support an initial 4. 25 gigawatts of computing capacity, made up exclusively of Nvidia's chips. It will also have the option to join in on an additional 3.

75 gigawatts of capacity down the line. LIVE 4 updates 50 mins ago Daniel Howley OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens, as safety questions swirl OpenAI ( OPAI. PVT ) is launching ChatGPT for Teens , a version of the chatbot that it says has built-in protections for younger users.

According to OpenAI, ChatGPT will default to teen mode if the company's systems estimate that a user is between 13 and 17 years old. Teen mode, the company says, can also assist teens with Study Mode, homework reminders, quizzes, and Study Hours. OpenAI says ChatGPT for Teens also uses safeguards that help reduce exposure to potentially inappropriate content, such as topics related to eating disorders, as well as graphic and sexual content.

OpenAI is launching ChatGPT for Teens. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration · REUTERS / Reuters The company also claims it is taking steps to prevent teens from developing emotional dependence on the chatbot. OpenAI has also faced criticism related to how teens use its bot, including lawsuits that contend that the software provided information about self-harm or prompted individuals to commit suicide .

Prior versions of ChatGPT, specifically GPT-4o, were criticized for being sycophantic and overly complementary, leading to some users falling down rabbit holes resulting in overuse, delusions, and other harms, often referred to as AI psychosis . The announcement comes the same day that Meta ( META ) is set to face off against attorneys general from four states in their lawsuit claiming that the social media giant purposely developed its apps to keep teens scrolling, impacting their mental health. Mon, August 17, 2026 at 6:37 PM UTC Daniel Howley Nvidia inks deal $105 billion deal for data center with OpenAI, SB Energy Nvidia ( NVDA ), OpenAI ( OPAI.

PVT ) , and SB Energy are teaming up to build a massive 8-gigawatt data center facility in Ohio. Nvidia will provide upward of $105 billion in financing to secure the land, power, and shell for the site. Initial plans call for the facility to offer 4.

25 gigawatts worth of computing capacity, with the option to increase that by another 3. 75 gigawatts in the future. SB Energy will ultimately build and own the site, known as the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus, which OpenAI will then lease for 20 years.

Nvidia is making a $1. 5 billion investment in SB Energy as part of the arrangement. The complex will exclusively use Nvidia GPUs, which the company says could amount to some 1.

5 million chips or roughly $150 billion to $200 billion in potential revenue for each generation deployed at the site through 2030. Taken together, the new deal, combined with Nvidia's prior agreements with OpenAI, could total as much as $600 billion for the company. In a blog post Monday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wrote that the deal does not constitute circular investing.

Circular investing, in which a company invests in a customer, which then purchases equipment from the investing firm, has raised concerns about inflated sales numbers. "Nvidia uses its scale and long-term visibility to secure PORTS-Pike to host Nvidia compute," Huang wrote. "This is the same discipline we apply to supply-chain management: we secure critical inputs when we have visibility into customer demand and when doing so enables long-term productive capacity.

" He also noted that Nvidia will only pay for portions of lease and power payments, not the full cost of the site or OpenAI's obligations. Nvidia has been on a deal-making spree, using its vast balance sheet to invest in the likes of Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence, SK Hynix, and setting up a $500 billion fund alongside Wall Street powerhouses, including BlackRock, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and Apollo, to allow data center builders to finance the purchase of Nvidia chips. Note: Apollo is the parent company of Yahoo Finance.

Mon, August 17, 2026 at 3:26 PM UTC Daniel Howley Meta to face major social media addiction trial Tuesday Meta ( META ) will face off against attorneys general from several states in an Oakland, Calif. , courtroom Tuesday as part of a major lawsuit alleging that the company violated child safety and consumer protection laws and harmed children's mental health. The trial, which begins on Tuesday and is being held in front of District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in US District Court for the Northern District of California, is part of a lawsuit filed by 29 states in 2023 and will serve as a kind of bellwether for future proceedings.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for a landmark trial over whether social media platforms deliberately addict and harm children, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun) · ASSOCIATED PRESS California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey are taking part in the trial, which is expected to include testimony from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri.

In the suit, the plaintiffs claim that Meta "developed and refined a set of psychologically manipulative platform features designed to maximize young users' time spent on its social media platforms," including infinite scroll, autoplay, likes, and more. The states also allege that Meta knew that its apps harmed users, including through increased instances of anxiety, depression, and suicide, but misled them by claiming its products are safe. Read more here.

Mon, August 17, 2026 at 1:33 PM UTC Brian Sozzi Micron stock heats up again, crossing $1,000 The momentum has returned to one of 2026's hottest AI trades: Micron ( MU ). Shares of the memory chip play crossed the psychologically important $1,000 level in premarket trading on Monday. The stock hasn't traded at or above this price since July 6, per Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace data.

From that date, shares lost 25% through July 29 amid a broader pullback in momentum AI names on overvaluation fears. The stock has since rallied from these lows by 36%. The strong demand from hyperscalers is poised to keep the memory chip crisis — which is driving up prices for Micron products — for at least two years, JPMorgan strategist Jay Kwon wrote in a recent note.

Read more .