Daily Tech & GNSS News Digest - February 24, 2026

Tech stocks staged a relief rally as AMD secured a historic $100 billion+ GPU deal with Meta, while software names bounced back after Anthropic’s enterprise partnerships eased AI disruption fears. The market mood shifted ahead of Nvidia’s critical Q4 earnings report tomorrow. In GNSS news, Hexagon’s completed acquisition of Septentrio is already yielding product integration benefits, while NovAtel’s latest firmware update sets new standards for positioning reliability in challenging environments.

Tech News

AMD Lands Massive $100B+ Deal with Meta for AI Data Centers

Advanced Micro Devices announced a landmark partnership with Meta Platforms to deploy up to 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs, in a deal valued at potentially more than $100 billion over multiple years. AMD shares surged 8% on the news, marking a dramatic reversal after falling last week when Meta committed to deploying millions of Nvidia GPUs.

The first deployment will feature a custom AMD Instinct GPU based on the MI450 architecture, manufactured on Taiwan Semiconductor’s cutting-edge 2-nanometer process. Each MI450 accelerator ships with 432 gigabytes of high-speed HBM4 memory capable of moving 19.6 terabits of data per second. Shipments supporting the first gigawatt deployment are scheduled to begin in the second half of 2026.

Meta will also receive a stock warrant allowing it to purchase up to 160 million AMD shares (approximately 10% of the company) for just a penny per share, with vesting tied to collaboration performance milestones. Mark Zuckerberg called it “an important step for Meta as we diversify our compute” in pursuit of “personal superintelligence.”

Software Stocks Rebound on Anthropic Enterprise Partnerships

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed nearly 400 points (0.8%) as software stocks led a recovery from last week’s AI disruption selloff. The catalyst was Anthropic’s enterprise agents event, where the AI startup revealed new partnerships that eased investor fears about wholesale sector displacement.

Anthropic launched updates to Claude Cowork enabling integration with enterprise applications including Salesforce’s Slack, Intuit, DocuSign, LegalZoom, FactSet, and Google’s Gmail. Salesforce shares jumped 4% while DocuSign and LegalZoom each gained over 2%. The broader iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) advanced approximately 2%.

IBM shares rebounded 3.5% after Monday’s 13% plunge triggered by Anthropic’s announcement that Claude Code could modernize legacy IBM system programming languages. Wedbush Securities analysts called the software selloff “overblown,” though some remain cautious. “This is not a cycle. This is a regime shift,” warned Jordi Visser of 22V Research. “This is going at light speed.”

All Eyes on Nvidia Ahead of Q4 Earnings

Nvidia will report fiscal Q4 2026 results after market close on Wednesday, with analysts expecting earnings of $1.53 per share on revenue of $65.7 billion—representing roughly 72% and 67% year-over-year growth respectively. The results come amid renewed Wall Street skepticism about the sustainability of AI infrastructure spending.

CEO Jensen Huang has projected confidence: “Blackwell sales are off the charts, and cloud GPUs are sold out. Compute demand keeps accelerating and compounding across training and inference—each growing exponentially.” The company is expected to guide Q1 fiscal 2027 revenue around $71 billion, where analysts anticipate a potential beat.

Key themes include the ramp of agentic AI applications from companies like Cursor, Anthropic, and OpenAI, which Huang has called “revolutionary.” Goldman Sachs expects initial shipments of Nvidia’s next-generation Rubin chip architecture in Q3, providing another growth catalyst for the $4 trillion company.

Additional Headlines

AI Pioneer Unveils Faster Chat Technology: Inception, founded by diffusion model pioneer Stefano Ermon, announced Mercury 2—an AI model that processes multiple tokens simultaneously to deliver responses faster and more cheaply than sequential alternatives.
Bitcoin Slides Below $67,000: The cryptocurrency dropped nearly 4% to $66,699 as macro uncertainties continued weighing on risk assets, down 24% year-to-date from its October peak above $126,000.
Asia Tech Defies Global AI Gloom: Asian chip stocks rallied as investors increasingly view the region’s semiconductor manufacturers and AI-related companies as beneficiaries of AI disruption rather than victims.
Quantum Computing Race Heats Up: Bloomberg Tech: Europe explored the high-stakes competition between the US, China, and Europe in quantum computing, with venture capital flooding into a sector promising breakthroughs in drug discovery, cybersecurity, and finance.

GNSS News

Hexagon-Septentrio Integration Advances GNSS Innovation

The completed acquisition of Septentrio by Hexagon is already showing tangible benefits for the positioning technology ecosystem. Septentrio’s well-regarded AsteRx receivers and Mosaic modules are being paired with Hexagon | NovAtel’s offerings, creating a deeper and more flexible GNSS portfolio for mission-critical applications.

The strategic rationale centers on combining Septentrio’s pioneering GNSS platform with Hexagon’s extensive capabilities in sensor fusion, anti-jamming, correction services, and perception technologies. The integration enables cutting-edge solutions with low SWaP (Size, Weight and Power) characteristics—critical for emerging high-growth segments including robotics, UAVs, and autonomous systems.

Septentrio, founded in 2000 as a spin-off from Belgian research institute Imec, reported revenues exceeding EUR 50 million in 2024 with 20% growth. The Leuven-headquartered company will continue operating its OEM-focused business model while benefiting from Hexagon’s global reach and complementary technologies.

NovAtel Firmware Update Boosts GNSS Reliability

Hexagon | NovAtel released its latest firmware for the OEM7 family of GNSS receivers, featuring significant improvements in positioning reliability and accuracy. The update sets new standards with advanced tracking capabilities that enhance performance in challenging or obstructed environments.

The firmware advances come as GPS World research highlighted the importance of real-world testing in harsh urban conditions. Studies in Frankfurt’s glass-facade corridors and Tokyo’s Shinjuku district—described as “one of the world’s toughest GNSS environments”—demonstrated that automotive safety depends more on reliability when signals are distorted than peak accuracy under ideal conditions.

This focus on robustness aligns with industry demands as Level 3 autonomy deployments expand. Meanwhile, SpaceX continues advancing LEO-based PNT alternatives, with Starlink now operating over 10,000 satellites and claiming nanosecond-level timing and meter-level positioning capabilities.

Key Takeaways

AMD Emerges as Credible AI Compute Alternative: Meta’s $100B+ commitment and 6 gigawatt deployment deal positions AMD as a genuine second source for hyperscale AI infrastructure, reducing Nvidia’s monopoly power even as both suppliers thrive.
Software Disruption Fears May Be Overdone: Anthropic’s enterprise partnerships suggest AI tools will augment rather than replace software platforms, though the sector remains vulnerable to sentiment swings ahead of continued agentic AI advancement.
GNSS Consolidation Drives Innovation: Hexagon’s Septentrio acquisition and ongoing firmware improvements demonstrate how industry consolidation is accelerating the development of more reliable, resilient positioning solutions for autonomous applications.