The unthinkable happened in San Francisco’s Silicon Valley Thursday morning.
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) founder and CEO Jensen Huang has resigned amid fallout from extramarital affairs and a looming Congressional probe into national security concerns over chip diversions to China.
Nvidia’s board has named longtime CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO while it searches for a permanent replacement. Stock Trader Network’s Dennis Dick noted in the ‘Think Tank’ that he dumped his overnight positions on the headline.
Industry peers including AMD (NASDAQ: AMD), Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO), Meta (NASDAQ: META), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) were all trading higher before the bell, but have been volatile.
Speaking on PreMarket Prep this morning, T3 Live’s David Prince called AMD a “must-own” on pullbacks, adding, “Who wins off the Jensen controversy? Number one is AMD.”
Zacks Investment Research’s Tracey Ryniec told PreMarket Prep that Huang’s exit “is going to be shocking to everyone in Silicon Valley” and voiced caution around direct Nvidia partners like Vertiv (NYSE: VRT). Still, Ryniec remains bullish on the broader AI infrastructure buildout, highlighting Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ: STRL), Arrow Electronics (NYSE: ARW) as a data-center play, Comfort Systems (NYSE: FIX) for cooling, and SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) for ongoing AI memory demand.
Here is what else is moving under the radar this morning:
- Crude oil (NYSE: USO) is spiking after President Donald Trump said, “We don’t need a deal with Iran,” following comments from Iranian General Heydari that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until ordered open by the Supreme Leader.
- Corporate insiders are stepping up with size. An MP Materials (NYSE: MP) director bought $2 million in stock, Coherent’s (NYSE: COHR) CEO purchased $997,000 worth of shares, and DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) director Gregory Westin Wendt picked up $99,000 in stock.
- Nebius (NASDAQ: NBIS) beat Q3 estimates, but an in-line 2027 revenue guide of $12 billion–$13 billion triggered a delayed pullback across neocloud and memory names, dragging CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV), IREN (NASDAQ: IREN), Terawulf (NASDAQ: WULF), and Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) lower.
- Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR) beat Q3 expectations and raised the low end of its full-year revenue outlook, while HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) announced co-founder Brian Halligan is returning as CEO to lead a “refounding” of the company.
STN Desk Takeaway: A leadership vacuum at the world’s most important AI company is testing the market’s nerve this morning. While money looks to be rotating into AMD, Broadcom, and the hyperscalers in hopes they can capture share from a distracted Nvidia, geopolitical heat in the Middle East and profit-taking in the neocloud space mean traders have plenty of cross-currents to worry about intraday.
