Nvidia's $1T projection, Trump's Cuba threats, 1-hour Amazon deliveries and more in Morning Squawk

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Good morning. Soon, your garage won’t be the only gym with a Peloton Bike. The fitness company is ramping up its commercial business, announcing yesterday new Bike and Tread products designed for busy gyms.

Stock futures are little changed this morning after Monday’s rebound.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

1. Orders up

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang speaks at the NVIDIA GTC global AI conference in San Jose, California, U.S. March 16, 2026.

Fred Greaves | Reuters

Shares of Nvidia closed about 1.7% higher Monday after CEO Jensen Huang said the chipmaker expects $1 trillion in orders for its Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems through next year — double the number Nvidia projected last year.

Here’s what else Huang announced during his keynote speech at Nvidia’s GTC conference:

• Huang unveiled Nvidia’s first chip from Groq, the startup whose assets it acquired for $20 billion last year. The Nvidia Groq 3 Language Processing Unit is set to ship in the third quarter.
• Nvidia is expanding its self-driving technology business, adding several automakers as customers for its Drive Hyperion platform. “The ChatGPT moment of self-driving cars has arrived,” Huang said.
• The chipmaker announced the launch of computing platforms for orbital data centers. It said multiple companies will use its Vera Rubin Space-1 Module on space missions.
• Huang also touted a new developer toolkit that will work with OpenClaw, the viral AI agent whose creator joined Nvidia last month.
• Don’t miss CNBC’s exclusive interview with Huang at 10:10 a.m. ET. Watch live on CNBC+ or the CNBC Pro stream.

2. Coalition building

Commercial vessels are pictured offshore in Dubai on March 11, 2026.

• | Afp | Getty Images

Oil prices retreated yesterday as uncertainty loomed over President Donald Trump’s plan for an international coalition to protect tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. “Numerous countries have told me they’re on the way,” the president said, though he provided no details.

Traffic through the strait has plummeted since the onset of the Iran war, as Iranian attacks cause the largest oil supply disruption in history. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC Monday that the U.S. is allowing Iranian tankers through the strait: “We’ve let that happen to supply the rest of the world,” he said.

Crude prices turned higher this morning, putting pressure on stock futures. Follow live market updates here.

3. Foreign affairs

US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, March 16, 2026.

Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Iran isn’t the only foreign country receiving Trump’s attention. The president said yesterday that he believes he’ll have the “honor” of “taking Cuba”: “Whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it,” Trump told reporters.

The comments come a little more than a week after Trump suggested he’d turn his focus to Cuba once the war in Iran is complete. The White House has effectively cut Havana off from Venezuelan oil since the U.S.’ capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, causing a fuel crisis in the country.

Meanwhile, Trump said Monday that the U.S. has requested his upcoming trip to China be delayed by “a month or so.” The president cited the Iran war for the postponement: “I’d love to, but because of the war, I want to be here. I have to be here, I feel.”

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4. Missing the mark?

Apollo Global Management signage in New York on Dec. 5, 2023.

Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Last month, Apollo’s John Zito told UBS clients that private equity firms are misstating the value of their software holdings: “I literally think all the marks are wrong,” the firm’s co-president of asset management and head of credit, said. “I think private equity marks are wrong.”

Zito’s warning — one of the first from within the industry — comes as software stocks see steep declines on investor fears that new AI tools will render their businesses obsolete. That in turn has sparked concern that private credit lenders’ software loans have stale valuations.

5. In the fast lane

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Your Amazon orders could soon arrive even faster.

The e-commerce giant announced this morning that shoppers in 2,000 U.S. cities and towns now have access to three-hour delivery, with one-hour delivery available in hundreds of those locations. Both options come with a fee, which is $10 less for Prime members.

As CNBC’s Annie Palmer reports, Amazon has invested heavily in its same-day delivery programs. The company has recently been testing 30-minute deliveries of household items and groceries through its Amazon Now offering, as well as drone-based deliveries in under an hour.

The Daily Dividend

Benchmark’s Bill Gurley told CNBC yesterday that he expects an artificial intelligence “reset.” “When people get rich quick, a whole bunch of people come in and want to get rich too, and that’s why we end up with bubbles,” the venture capitalist told CNBC’s “Money Movers.”

watch now

VIDEO4:3304:33

There’s never been a time where you can learn as fast as you can right now: Bill Gurley on AI

Money Movers

—_ CNBC’s Brandon Gomez, Gabrielle Fonrouge, Pia Singh, Sean Conlon, Katie Tarasov, Lola Murti, Michael Wayland, Spencer Kimball, Lee Ying Shan, Garrett Downs, Kevin Breuninger, Hugh Son and Annie Palmer contributed to this report. Terri Cullen edited this edition._

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