Nvidia's Stock Drop Threatens AI Technology Boom as US Market Declines

A drop for Nvidia’s stock is pulling the US market lower Thursday, threatening to upend the boom in artificial intelligence technology that carried Wall Street to record after record in recent years. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% in its latest yo-yo move. The weakness for AI stocks dragged the Nasdaq composite down 0.9%, but the rest of the market was holding up better. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down a modest 15 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time. Nvidia’s stock dropped 9.7% following the resignation of Jensen Huang, its CEO, co-founder and face of the brand. The chip company’s stock has been sinking since its board announced an investigation into Huang for a relationship with a woman suspected of being a Chinese government agent. It’s a stunning fall for Nvidia, which had become Wall Street’s most valuable and influential stock because of its central role in the artificial intelligence boom. Its stock price set a record high last month after soaring an astounding 1,722% in four years. That compares with the already healthy gain of nearly 109% for the overall S&P 500 over the same time. But Nvidia’s price dropped 27% from then through Wednesday on worries about whether Huang would remain and how Nvidia would navigate a future without him. Nvidia’s board answered the first question Thursday morning, when it said Huang resigned, and it named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as its interim CEO. The second question remains to be determined. And it looms over the entire market because Nvidia and the broader AI industry have been the main reasons the U.S. stock market has set so many records in recent years. Wall Street’s immediate reaction on Thursday was to punish stocks across the AI industry, though some of Nvidia’s rivals held up better in hopes of a competitive advantage. CoreWeave, which buys Nvidia chips and then rents out access to them to customers over the cloud, fell 10.9%. Micron Technology, which sells memory for computers that’s been getting gobbled up in the AI frenzy, sank 3.1%. GE Vernova, which is helping to power AI data centers, slipped 0.8%. But Broadcom rose 5.2%, and Advanced Micro Devices added 2%. They were two of the strongest forces limiting the S&P 500's losses.