NYSE’s Tuchman: Follow AI supply chain, not GPU hype

Peter Tuchman, the longest-serving trader on the New York Stock Exchange floor, compared the current demand for graphics processing units to the early days of Bitcoin mining, when hobbyists assembled rigs at home.

Tuchman, who handles between $500 million and $1 billion in stock trades daily, said entrepreneurs are creating marketplaces for constrained computing capacity. He highlighted large orders for new chips: Nvidia disclosed more than $500 billion in Blackwell and Rubin orders through 2026 last October, and CEO Jensen Huang raised that to roughly $1 trillion through 2027 at the company’s March conference.

Several former Bitcoin mining operations have been converted into data centers and signed large cloud contracts. One cited example is IREN’s reported $9.7 billion agreement with Microsoft. Tuchman noted some miner stocks have started to move with AI infrastructure spending rather than with the cryptocurrency’s price; Bitcoin traded near $61,205 on Wednesday, about 2.4% lower over 24 hours.

Energy demand is a central factor. The International Energy Agency projects data center electricity use could more than double to about 945 terawatt-hours by 2030, a level similar to a large industrialized country’s annual consumption. Jensen Huang has said available power will determine how far AI can expand. Tuchman pointed to generators, grid capacity and new data center construction as key areas to watch.

He recommended tracking suppliers beyond headline chipmakers: component manufacturers, rare-earth miners, power producers and companies that make cooling systems and server racks. These public companies report results on their own schedules and can move independently of megacap AI names.

Tuchman cautioned against betting on short-term enthusiasm, recalling retail traders who bought GameStop near its $483 peak in January 2021 and kept positions afterward. “FOMO, hype and hope are not sustainable trading strategies,” he said in a podcast interview, citing his experience on the trading floor during Black Monday in 1987, the dot-com collapse and the 2008 financial crisis.

Others in markets have issued similar cautions. Investor Bill Ackman compared current buying of chips and energy stocks to dot-com era crowd behavior and labeled the period a boom rather than a bubble. Trade figures show continued activity: Chinese exports beat forecasts in May, supported in part by orders tied to AI-related products, and several firms reported strong infrastructure spending alongside record earnings at major chipmakers.

Capital and policy developments reflect growing institutional attention to AI infrastructure. OpenAI submitted a confidential IPO filing and U.S. government plans on AI ownership are under discussion. Energy contracts and chipmaker earnings are scheduled for reporting in coming quarters.