Asian markets fell Thursday after a report that Nvidia’s board was preparing to oust chief executive Jensen Huang raised questions about the chipmaker’s leadership and the resilience of the AI trade. The Wall Street Journal report said the move followed revelations of two extramarital affairs, including one with a suspected Chinese spy and another with an employee.
Nvidia shares dropped more than 8% in after-hours trading, while Nasdaq futures fell 0.9%. Competitors moved in different directions: Advanced Micro Devices rose about 4%, Broadcom gained 2.8% and Intel lost 2.7%.
Investors appeared to treat the report mainly as a risk specific to Nvidia, rather than a broad retreat from AI-related stocks. “Despite how interconnected the AI ecosystem has become, price action suggests investors are treating this primarily as an idiosyncratic risk to Nvidia,” said Chris Weston, Pepperstone’s head of research. Morningstar senior equity analyst Brian Colello said the situation had not changed the firm’s medium-term financial forecasts for Nvidia, citing the high costs of switching from its AI software ecosystem.
Saxo chief investment strategist Charu Chanana said AMD, Broadcom, Alphabet and Samsung could benefit if customers diversify away from Nvidia. But she cautioned that potential market-share gains were not confirmed new business, and said disruption to AI spending was the larger risk. Nvidia’s technology advantage remained intact, she said, but an abrupt exit without a credible succession plan could unsettle partnerships, its China strategy and its broader AI vision.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.4%, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average lost 0.8% and Taiwan’s Taiex declined 2.7%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Tech Index was down 1.5%, while the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. fell 2.5% and SK Hynix lost 0.8%; Samsung Electronics rose 1.0%. Chinese AI chip designers gained: MetaX rose 12% and Cambricon Technologies 10% in Shanghai, while Shanghai Biren Technology advanced more than 7% in Hong Kong. Deutsche Bank’s Peter Milliken said recent shifts in sentiment toward U.S. AI data-center construction and the likely fallout from the NVIDIA/Megaspeed news could lift demand for Chinese chips.
Oil prices also declined as traders assessed diplomatic efforts to end the Middle East conflict. The Wall Street Journal reported that Vice President JD Vance was considering face-to-face talks with a senior Iranian security official. OCBC analysts said the geopolitical premium was fading as diplomacy progressed and fears of fresh large-scale strikes eased. The bank kept its end-2026 Brent forecast at $100 a barrel but cut its end-2027 estimate to $75 from $85. Front-month WTI fell 1.0% to $85.71 a barrel and Brent dropped 1.0% to $91.81.
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