Personnel Shake-Up Sparks Divergence in Share Prices
NVIDIA co-founder Jensen Huang resigned on Thursday the 12th, U.S. time, ending his 33-year tenure at the helm. The market is reconsidering how long the technological advantages, customer relationships, and vast AI investment network built by Huang can last after losing its core leader. Thursday's U.S. stock performance already revealed the stance of some investors, with NVIDIA plunging more than 14% intraday before narrowing its loss to close down 4.34% at $166.19. Closely linked AI cloud service provider CoreWeave was dragged down, falling 6.86% on the day. In contrast, rivals AMD and Broadcom rose 5.86% and 5.54% against the trend, while Google parent Alphabet and Amazon gained 1.79% and 0.48% respectively. The divergence in share prices reflects that the market is not broadly bearish on the AI industry, but is reassessing who may gain more opportunities amid turmoil in NVIDIA's management team.
Moat Remains, Diversified Sourcing Accelerates
In recent years, NVIDIA has built a formidable advantage in the AI accelerator market with GPU computing performance, the CUDA software ecosystem, and full system integration capabilities. However, technological leadership does not mean customers are willing to rely on a single supplier forever, especially when chip purchases involve tens of billions of dollars in capital expenditure, where supply stability and bargaining power matter equally. Huang's sudden departure could become a catalyst for large cloud operators to re-examine supply chain risks. Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others were already actively developing in-house chips and diversified sourcing strategies, and now have even more reason to reduce dependence on a single technology platform. AMD is competing for the GPU computing market previously dominated by NVIDIA through its Instinct series AI accelerators and ROCm software platform; Broadcom is helping large cloud operators build AI infrastructure better suited to their own needs with custom ASIC chips and high-speed networking technology. The two take different approaches, but both point to the same trend, with the AI chip market potentially moving from high dominance by NVIDIA toward a more diversified supply structure. However, share prices leading reflect expectations, not that orders have already shifted. CUDA's accumulated development tools, software compatibility, and deployment experience over the years remain NVIDIA's most important moat. For large customers, switching to other chips involves more than replacing hardware, including software porting, model optimization, and overall operating costs, so NVIDIA still retains considerable competitive advantage in the short term.
CoreWeave's Sympathetic Fall Highlights Funding Chain Risks
Compared with AMD and Broadcom rising against the trend, CoreWeave's share price performance highlights another risk. The AI cloud service provider had just surged 24.71% on Wednesday the 11th on upbeat guidance news, but fell 6.86% the next day to close at $56.6. CoreWeave purchases NVIDIA GPUs in large quantities, while NVIDIA is also its investor and key partner. This model combining chip sales, equity investment, computing capacity procurement and data center expansion was once a key driver of rapid AI infrastructure growth. Notably, CoreWeave's financial health has always been a market concern. Despite third-quarter revenue of $36.61 billion, up 168% year-on-year, and backlog orders reaching 1325 billion dollars, it still posted a net loss of $709 million for the quarter, with net interest expense of $846 million, far above operating profit of $207 million; as of the end of September, total debt had climbed to about $46.873 billion. In other words, while CoreWeave is not short of orders, it relies heavily on external financing to support its massive AI infrastructure investment, and if NVIDIA's new management team adjusts its investment or partnership strategy, its funding pressure could worsen. Reuters quoted Joe Saluzzi, head of trading at Themis Trading, as noting that NVIDIA has even been described by the market as an AI bank, supporting the entire industry ecosystem through investments and funding commitments. As the market begins to consider that if the new management team chooses to impose greater investment discipline and slow some funding, the impact may be reflected not only in NVIDIA's own revenue, but also transmitted to AI cloud providers highly reliant on external financing.
Three Tests in Post-Huang Era Await Clarification at Earnings
Huang's departure does not mean NVIDIA's technological advantages will immediately disappear. Products such as Blackwell still have established development and shipment plans, and the CUDA software ecosystem will not suddenly collapse due to a CEO change. Beyond chip market share, after NVIDIA enters the post-Huang era, there are three challenges of real uncertainty worth watching. First is the leadership transition, as Huang long led product technology roadmaps, major investments and key supply chain partnerships, and actively extended the AI footprint from servers to autonomous driving, robotics and the physical AI ecosystem, playing a central role in technology decisions and industry布局. Now CFO Kress is familiar with company operations and Wall Street communication, but whether she can continue the original technology strategy, integrate cross-domain resources, and maintain the pace of innovation remains to be seen. Second is customer relationships and procurement strategy, as large cloud operators were already actively developing their own AI chips, and NVIDIA's personnel change may prompt customers to accelerate diversified sourcing布局, giving AMD, Broadcom and other custom chip suppliers more opportunities. Third is the huge AI investments and funding commitments, with CNBC reporting that NVIDIA is currently involved in about $400 billion in long-term investments, cloud procurement, guarantees and related cooperation commitments, and whether they will be reviewed with the new management team taking office. If some funding or cooperation timelines are adjusted, the impact could extend from chipmakers to cloud services, data centers and power infrastructure operators. As NVIDIA is set to report quarterly earnings on November 17 U.S. time, the market will focus not only on AI chip demand, Blackwell shipments and profit outlook, but also on whether the new management team can stabilize customer relationships, continue existing partnerships and adjust capital allocation.