Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF Sees Outflows Amid AI Volatility

Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF ( $VTI ) has risen by 0.69% in the past week. It has experienced a 5-day net outflow of $62.6 million.
This is due, in part, to market sentiment on some of the ETF’s largest holdings. For example:

• Nvidia Corporation spent the week at the center of the AI trade, pairing record results with rising competitive pressure. The chipmaker posted $68.1 billion in annual revenue and a huge earnings beat, but the stock slid around 5% as investors questioned how long hyperscaler AI spending, rich 37x P/E valuations, and demand from China can stay this strong in the face of custom chips from Amazon and Alphabet.
• Nvidia Corporation is responding by broadening its AI lineup, preparing a new inference-focused processor to speed real-time AI responses just as OpenAI, a likely major buyer, signs deals with both Microsoft and Amazon. Despite near-term volatility and cloud giants shifting some work to in-house silicon, analysts remain overwhelmingly bullish, with Strong Buy ratings and price targets implying roughly 45%–55% upside over the next year.
• Apple Inc is emerging as a relative winner in a cooling smartphone market that IDC says will shrink nearly 13% by 2026 as memory costs soar and cheap Android devices become uneconomical. Thanks to its premium positioning and strong balance sheet, Apple is expected to gain share and has already delivered a 23% jump in iPhone revenue, helping support a Moderate Buy rating and about 13% implied upside.
• Apple Inc is also being repositioned as a future AI hardware play, with J.P. Morgan forecasting up to $25 billion in annual sales from AI Companion devices like smart glasses, pins, and home assistants by 2030. The strategy centers on a more personalized Siri that uses on-device data and Google’s Gemini models, though Apple’s struggle to retain top AI talent underscores execution risks even as analysts see potential EPS gains of roughly 5% by decade’s end.
• Microsoft spent the week calming nerves around its partnership with OpenAI after the AI firm struck a major funding and cloud deal with Amazon. Both companies stressed that Azure remains OpenAI’s primary platform and Microsoft keeps its exclusive tech license while sharing in revenue from other cloud partnerships, reinforcing that Amazon’s role is incremental capacity rather than a strategic replacement.
• Microsoft is simultaneously trimming some physical expansion, putting five Sammamish Village buildings on hold and leaving the next Xbox’s launch plans and pricing unclear, moves that coincided with a modest share-price dip. Even so, Wall Street stays firmly positive, viewing the pause as digestion rather than retreat and assigning Strong Buy ratings with targets near $594–$600, implying roughly 40%–50% upside as Microsoft pours capital into AI data centers, Maia chips, and autonomous AI agents.