Nvidia shares plunged on Thursday after co-founder and chief executive Jensen Huang resigned with immediate effect, ending a 33-year tenure at the helm of the world’s most valuable semiconductor company. The sudden departure triggered one of the sharpest sell-offs in the company’s history and pushed its market value below $4 trillion for the first time since July 2025.
Jensen Huang resigns after 33 years leading Nvidia
Nvidia announced on Thursday 12 November that Huang had resigned as president, chief executive and a member of the board, effective immediately. The company named chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim chief executive while the board begins a formal search for a permanent successor. The official announcement contained no statement from Huang himself, though the board thanked him for his contributions.
Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and built it from a graphics card start-up into the world’s most valuable chipmaker and the single most important hardware company of the artificial intelligence era. He holds about 3.6 per cent of the company’s stock.
Why the Nvidia board opened an investigation
The resignation came five days after Nvidia’s board announced an investigation into Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, a businesswoman and former executive at Singapore-based technology firm Megaspeed, whom United States intelligence reportedly believed to be gathering information for Beijing. Huang confirmed the affair, and the stock fell more than 4 per cent on Monday alone, erasing $192 billion in market value that day.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to remove Huang before he resigned first. The independent investigation into whether Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence operation remains open, and the company has also faced a shareholder lawsuit over the matter.
Nvidia shares fall to a 14-year valuation low
Nvidia shares fell as much as 13 per cent during Thursday’s session, trading around $155.48 early in the day against Wednesday’s close of $173.73, before paring losses to close down about 6 per cent at $163.27. More than $550 billion in market value has disappeared since the board announced its investigation on Sunday, and the company has shed roughly $300 billion since then in some counts of the week’s trading. Shares are down more than 30 per cent over the past month, erasing all of Nvidia’s 2026 gains in about a week.
The sell-off has pushed Nvidia’s valuation to its lowest level in 14 years. According to Reuters data, the stock now trades at about 12 times its expected earnings over the next 12 months, its cheapest forward earnings multiple since November 2012. The company has slipped behind Apple and Microsoft in market value after briefly holding the title of the world’s most valuable company.
An Nvidia graphics processor. The company’s chips power much of the world’s artificial intelligence infrastructure.
FAKTA
- Jensen Huang resigned on 12 November 2026 as president, chief executive and board member, effective immediately.
- Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and led the company for 33 years.
- Chief financial officer Colette Kress has been named interim chief executive.
- Nvidia shares fell as much as 13 per cent on the day of the resignation, from a previous close of $173.73.
- More than $550 billion in market value has been wiped out since the board announced its investigation.
- The stock now trades at about 12 times forward earnings, its lowest valuation multiple since November 2012.
- Nvidia reports quarterly earnings on 17 November, with guidance of $108 billion in revenue for the October quarter.
Analysts cut targets as uncertainty grows
Analysts moved quickly to reassess the company. Bernstein halved its share price target and moved to the sidelines, saying it preferred to watch from the sidelines amid considerable uncertainty. Dan Ives cut his target from $300 to $225 while keeping a constructive long-term view, and Oppenheimer took the rare step of removing its price target entirely and downgrading the stock.
Investors will get their first formal update under the new interim leadership when Nvidia reports its fiscal third-quarter results on 17 November. The company guided to $108 billion in revenue for the October quarter after posting $96.22 billion and $2.22 in adjusted earnings per share in the August quarter. That report will show whether demand for Nvidia’s chips held up while the succession was unresolved.
