Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns; shares close 4.3% lower (opens the source in a new tab)
- Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's chief on Thursday after revelations of two extramarital affairs, one with a suspected Chinese spy, the WSJ reports. Longtime lieutenant Colette Kress leads in the interim, with no clear succession plan.
- The shares closed 4.3% lower, and at one point Nvidia's value was more than $2 trillion below its October high. Firms backed by Nvidia money, such as CoreWeave, fell; rivals Broadcom and AMD rose.
- A Semafor column by Liz Hoffman argues Huang was AI's buyer of last resort: Nvidia guarantees more than $100 billion of data-centre leases. Without that 'Nvidia put', she expects AI debt and equity to cost more.
- 4.3%
- Thursday's fall
- $2tn+
- off the October peak at one point
Why it matters Nvidia is the AI boom's supplier, financier and chief voice in Washington. Whoever succeeds Huang decides whether it keeps backstopping customers and deals, and with it how cheaply the AI build-out can be funded.
Watch next Nvidia's quarterly results next week. The WSJ notes investors see little change in chip demand, and rivals and cloud buyers rose on the day. If orders hold, a smaller backstop may simply mean healthier, less circular AI financing.