Nvidia shares plunged as much as 14% on Thursday, Nov. 12, after Jensen Huang resigned as chief executive, then recovered most of the drop to close at $166.19, down $7.54, or 4.34%, from Wednesday's close of $173.73, according to Nasdaq data. At the low of $148.80, the world's most valuable chipmaker had shed about $600 billion of market value, before buyers cut that to about $182 billion by the close. Both figures are Capital Times calculations based on the 24.1 billion shares Nvidia reported outstanding in August.

The swing matters in Asia because Nvidia's share price has become a proxy for the AI spending that drives revenue at Taiwanese foundries, Korean memory makers and Japanese equipment suppliers. Asian markets open on Friday with the first full read on how U.S. investors judged the leadership change, and the answer from Thursday's trading was mixed: a panic at the open, then steady buying.

A 14% hole, then a rebound

Nvidia said Huang stepped down as president, CEO and director, with Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress serving as interim CEO. The stock gapped lower as soon as regular trading began in New York. CoinDesk reported the drop reached 14% in the opening minutes, and the day's range on Motley Fool's quote page ran from $148.80 to $167.14. The stock's 52-week high is $243.37.

By early trading the stock had already climbed back to about $166, down roughly 4%, the San Francisco Standard reported. It hovered near that level for most of the afternoon. Motley Fool data showed it at $163.34 at 3:35 p.m. Eastern time, down 5.98%, and Nasdaq data put the official closing price at $166.19, a 4.34% loss.

Trading was extraordinary. About 676.7 million shares had changed hands by 3:35 p.m., more than five times the average daily volume of 131.1 million shown on the Motley Fool page, and about 733 million had traded by early evening, Nasdaq data showed. The San Francisco Standard called Nvidia the day's most actively traded stock. A leveraged fund that bets against the shares, the GraniteShares 2x Short NVDA Daily ETF, rose 14.8% early in the session.

Thursday's fall added to a rough month. Nvidia has lost more than $1 trillion of market value in November alone, the San Francisco Standard reported, as a board investigation and reports about Huang's contacts with a former executive of a Singapore chip buyer weighed on the stock. Those reports, which Nvidia has disputed, were covered in Capital Times' story on the board investigation. Huang has not been charged with wrongdoing.

Rivals rise, AI cloud stocks sink

The selling did not spread evenly across chips. Investors rotated into Nvidia's competitors. Broadcom rose 4.8% to $361.78 and Advanced Micro Devices gained 2.1% to $564.25 in early trading, according to the San Francisco Standard. AMD extended its rise as the day went on; the Motley Fool's midday report said it had surged 6.3%.

Companies whose business depends on renting out Nvidia processors fared worse. CoreWeave fell 9.5% to $54.98 and Nebius Group dropped 18.4% to $126.27 early in the session, the San Francisco Standard said. Super Micro Computer, which builds servers around Nvidia chips, fell more than 10%, the Motley Fool reported, and memory maker Micron Technology slid 4.6% to $773.76. CoinDesk said shares of bitcoin miners that have turned into AI data center operators, such as IREN, also fell.

The broader market absorbed the hit. At the open, the S&P 500 was down 0.45% at 7,585.27 and the Nasdaq Composite was off 0.65% at 25,300.96, while the technology sector dropped 1.39%, the San Francisco Standard reported. The indexes then recovered. The Motley Fool's midday report had the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slightly higher by 11:30 a.m., and its market data late in the afternoon showed the S&P 500 down about 0.4% at 7,591.40 and the Nasdaq down about 0.5% at 25,334.24. The Cboe Volatility Index rose 4.1% to 18.20 early in the day.

What analysts said

Several on Wall Street argued that the reaction at the open went too far. Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial, told the San Francisco Standard that investors "may be confusing the value of Jensen Huang with the value of Nvidia." He also said a company worth trillions of dollars should not depend so heavily on one person, a point that cuts the other way for a business whose strategy and customer relationships were built around its founder for more than three decades.

Not everyone was reassured. RBC Capital Markets cut its price target on Nvidia to $230 from $330, the San Francisco Standard reported. The new target still implies a gain of nearly 40% from Thursday's close.

Nvidia's board tried to steady investors. Harvey Jones, named the company's first board chair as part of the transition, said the board has "full confidence in Colette and the leadership team," according to the San Francisco Standard.

The next test comes quickly. Nvidia reports third-quarter results for fiscal 2027 on Tuesday, Nov. 17, with a conference call at 2 p.m. Pacific time, Kress's first as interim chief executive. Traders will be watching whether the company repeats its outlook and whether any large customers comment on their orders. At Thursday's close, Nvidia's stock was still about 32% below its 52-week high.