Nvidia’s stock tanked late Wednesday after the close of regular trading on reports that the chipmaker’s board was preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang — even as it emerged that Huang reportedly had a second affair in addition to his admitted romantic entanglement with an alleged Chinese spy.
Shares of the AI chip giant tumbled 8% in frenzied after-hours trades, helping erase market optimism earlier in the day that had fueled a bounce in what has been a roller coaster for the battered tech sector.
Investors had started to come down from full-fledged panic mode over Nvidia’s investigation into its longtime leader, who admitted over the weekend to an affair with suspected Chinese spy Alice Huang, no relation.
Tech stocks had surged Wednesday as strong AI earnings helped the tech trade recover from a painful start to the week following bombshell revelations of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair.
Shares of Nvidia had risen 2.9% in Wednesday’s regular session. The stock tanked earlier in the week, shedding more than $400 billion in market value over just two days as traders worried the firm would not stay afloat without Jensen Huang at the helm.
“Nvidia’s an extraordinary company, right? It is not one person,” CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator told CNBC on Wednesday. “There are thousands of people over there that interface with thousands of people at my company every day.”
“With regards to Jensen, I just don’t think it’s really appropriate for me, or for that matter, for anyone to really have too much of an opinion here. They’ve begun a process. Let’s let the process run.”
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 jumped more than 1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5%.
CoreWeave — a so-called “neocloud” that buys up AI computing power and leases it out to other companies – soared 24% after reporting a massive 168% revenue jump in the third quarter. It also hiked its 2026 operating income and revenue forecasts.
Nvidia has a 12.8% stake in CoreWeave.
CoreWeave’s biggest customer is Microsoft, which is why it often serves as a bellwether for the AI industry and largely drove other tech stocks higher Wednesday.
Advanced Micro Devices, Intel and Broadcom jumped 7.4%, 7.4% and 4.2%, respectively.
The tech sector was abuzz after a Tuesday SEC filing revealed that Anthropic is expecting its initial public offering to value the AI startup at a whopping $1.4 trillion. The IPO is expected as soon as next week.
Nic Puckrin, a former Goldman Sachs analyst and founder of Coin Bureau, said CoreWeave’s earnings and Anthropic’s valuation gave investors confidence that the AI rally isn’t over yet, despite concerns about the cost of the data center buildout.
“However, it’s too early to say if it’s a knee-jerk bounce or a more sustainable recovery,” he told The Post. “The risks and concerns around AI profitability still remain, so investor sentiment could still easily do a U-turn if there is a whiff of negative news.”
Along with concerns around the Nvidia scandal, fresh inflation data weighed on stocks Tuesday as the Consumer Price Index came in hotter than expected – setting up the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates next month and fueling fears of more hikes down the line.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan each said officials might need to pick up the pace of rate hikes.
Stocks were hammered last week after initially rising following the midterm elections, as investors grew concerned that Democratic officials could halt data center projects – potentially hitting revenue at AI firms.
Kenin Spivak, chairman and CEO of SMI Group, said he expects market volatility to continue “as the fallout of ballot measures on data centers is better understood and the situation in Iran continues to play out.”
In oil markets, Brent crude futures rose 1.2% to $92.55 a barrel after falling in the previous two sessions while the dollar jumped to a 19-month high. The bond market was closed for Veterans Day.