Nvidia, the company at the center of the artificial intelligence boom, faces a leadership question that few investors saw coming. Shares of the chipmaker fell about 7% in premarket trading on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal reported that its board was weighing whether to remove co-founder Jensen Huang as chief executive, according to Reuters.
What has been reported
The reports follow news coverage of Huang’s personal conduct, including a New York Times account that the board had opened an investigation, according to Yahoo Finance and TheStreet. Nvidia had not confirmed any leadership change, and the allegations had not been independently verified, according to a market report carried by Yahoo Finance UK. Huang, a co-founder, owns about 3.6% of the company’s shares, according to that report.
The timing was striking. Nvidia had climbed nearly 3% during Wednesday’s regular session as AI stocks rallied behind CoreWeave’s strong quarterly results. The reversal came after the closing bell, with shares down more than 8% in late after-hours trading, StockTitan reported.
Wall Street reacts
Analysts moved quickly. Baird cut its rating on Nvidia to Neutral and lowered its price target, while Morgan Stanley dropped the stock from its top picks list, according to TheStreet. The broader concern is less about chip demand and more about who steers the company at a pivotal moment. Huang has been the public face of Nvidia’s product roadmap and its relationships with major cloud customers.
The selling spilled over into other AI-linked names. According to Reuters, CoreWeave fell about 7% premarket, Nebius dropped 4.7%, and Intel, Marvell and Micron were down roughly 3% each. Nasdaq 100 futures slipped about 0.6% to 0.8% depending on the time of the quote.
The China angle
The episode has also revived concern over U.S. chip export policy. Alibaba shares fell more than 6% in Hong Kong as investors weighed the chance of tighter restrictions on semiconductor sales to China, and Chinese officials urged Washington not to use the Nvidia reports as a reason for new curbs, according to Bloomberg as cited by Yahoo Finance UK. TipRanks reported that Chinese AI firms were rushing to secure Nvidia chips amid those fears.
Earnings next week
Nvidia is scheduled to report quarterly results after the close on Tuesday, November 17, according to Earnings Whispers. That report was already one of the most anticipated of the season, given Nvidia’s weight in major stock indexes and its role as a bellwether for AI spending. Now investors will be listening for clarity on leadership as much as on data center revenue.
For the rest of the chip sector, the coming days will test whether the AI trade can hold up when its biggest name is under a cloud.
