Jensen Huang resigned from Nvidia on Thursday after 33 years, and investors now have to decide how much of the world's most important AI stock was the company and how much was the man.
Five days from scandal to exit
On Sunday, Huang admitted to an extramarital affair. The same day, the board said it would investigate whether he had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort, and said it still backed him.
US officials suspected the woman involved was working with Chinese intelligence, CNN reported. We covered that investigation here.
On Wednesday night, the New York Times reported a second affair, this one with an Nvidia executive who reported to him. The board met that night.
On Thursday, a single press release ended it. Huang resigned as president, chief executive, and board member, effective immediately. For three decades, the founder and the company had been treated as the same thing.
What the market did
Nvidia shares closed Thursday down 4.3% from Wednesday's close, erasing about $182B in market value. The stock had traded down as much as 14% intraday before recovering most of the drop by the close. AMD closed up 5.9% and Broadcom up 5.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.4%.
Analysts moved faster than the facts. At least six firms downgraded the stock between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
The deepest cuts came from Baird, which took its target from $500 to $200. Evercore ISI went from $465 to $186.
Bernstein cut from $400 to $200, and Melius Research from $315 to $185. Oppenheimer pulled its target entirely, William Blair and KeyBanc downgraded without stating one, and Morgan Stanley dropped the stock from its Top Pick list.
Four Firms Cut Their Nvidia Targets By More Than Half
Old versus new price target, US$, as of Nov. 12, 2026
- Old Target
- New Target
Bar chart. Price Target (US$). Baird: Old Target $500, New Target $200. Bernstein: Old Target $400, New Target $200. Melius Research: Old Target $315, New Target $185. Evercore ISI: Old Target $465, New Target $186.
Source: CNBC
The concern is mostly about who runs the company. Evercore's Mark Lipacis flagged that Nvidia has no obvious succession plan and no clear second-in-command.
Bernstein's Stacy Rasgon argued the underlying business is fine, and still told clients to stay back.
Who runs Nvidia now
Chief financial officer Colette Kress becomes interim chief executive and keeps the finance job until a permanent successor is named. She joined in 2013 after nearly 25 years in finance roles at Cisco and Microsoft.
Harvey C. Jones, a former Synopsys chief executive, becomes Nvidia's first-ever board chair. The board says it will weigh internal and external candidates, and that customer commitments and the product roadmap continue without interruption.
The first test is Tuesday
Nvidia reports third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, Nov. 17, as scheduled. It'll be the first earnings report with Kress as both interim chief executive and finance chief, and the first without Huang.
A day later, Anthropic prices its IPO. Nvidia is one of seven chip and tech companies in a $26B private placement alongside that listing, with Alphabet, Microsoft, and TSMC. Anthropic's IPO has its own story.
For anyone holding a lot of AI stocks, UBS global wealth management chief investment officer Mark Haefele told clients the episode strengthens the case for diversification as the AI trade matures.
New Nvidia Targets Cluster Near The Same Level
Price target by firm, US$, as of Nov. 12, 2026
- Old target
- New target
Line chart. Baird: Old target 500, New target 200. Evercore ISI: Old target 465, New target 186. Bernstein: Old target 400, New target 200. Melius Research: Old target 315, New target 185.
Source: CNBC
Nvidia's chips still sit at the center of the AI buildout, its chips take a long time to develop, and its customer contracts run long. The company now has to prove that the roadmap outlives the man who drew it.
