Vahid Karaahmetovic
2 min read
Investing.com — AMD and Broadcom rallied in Thursday premarket trading after The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia’s board is preparing to oust founder and CEO Jensen Huang.
The Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the Nvidia board met as soon as Wednesday evening to decide Huang’s fate. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the meeting took place that same night, though no official outcome or board statement had been confirmed.
Nvidia shares tumbled more than 6% in the premarket trade by 05:57 ET, while AMD and Broadcom rose 3.6% and 2.5%, respectively. The moves point to investors betting that turmoil at the top of Nvidia could bode well for its two closest competitors.
AMD’s GPU roadmap competes directly with Nvidia’s data center accelerators. Cloud providers have increasingly looked to its custom chip designs as an alternative to Nvidia’s standard GPUs, and continued uncertainty at Nvidia could speed that diversification.
“Nvidia is facing increased scrutiny and a potential leadership vacuum, and while ASIC competition remains a risk to Instinct, we see an opportunity for AMD to benefit from custom programs as an opportunity for CPU attach,” said William Blair analysts, who upgraded AMD to Outperform.
“We see a runway for shares to work from here, with Instinct share gains offering additional upside as AMD stays focused on execution while its largest competitor, Nvidia, contends with a growing leadership and regulatory imbroglio.”
Huang’s role at the center of the global chip industry has made him a worldwide celebrity. He meets regularly with top U.S. and Chinese officials and is often mobbed by fans on visits to Taiwan, his birthplace.
On Sunday, Huang told staff in a letter that he had been unfaithful to his wife, apologizing for breaking the trust of his family and employees. The affair involved Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based data company Megaspeed, a major Nvidia customer. U.S. intelligence officials believe she works for Chinese intelligence services.
