Nvidia sank as much as 9-10% after hours Wednesday and is down roughly 6-8% premarket after the WSJ, NYT and FT reported the board met late Wednesday to discuss Huang's future over two alleged extramarital relationships — one with an Nvidia employee, one with a woman accused of ties to Chinese intelligence. The board had opened a probe Sunday into whether Huang was targeted in a foreign intelligence operation while expressing confidence in him. Analysts told CNBC shares could fall another 20% on an actual removal given no clear successor; earnings land after the close November 17.
Baird's Tristan Gerra downgraded Nvidia Wednesday in a note titled "Icarus' Rise and Fall; Company Will be Fine," a 60% price-target cut citing Huang uncertainty, potential U.S. restrictions on H200 exports to China that could force a $5 billion inventory write-down, and decelerating hyperscaler capex into 2027. Nvidia was also dropped from Morgan Stanley's Top Pick list. Per LSEG, only three of 64 analysts now rate NVDA hold or underperform — this is a genuinely rare call.
AMD rose 3.87% after hours to $574.29 and Broadcom gained 2.35% to $353.32 as investors bet leadership chaos at Nvidia opens share-gain room. AMD had already surged 7.3% in Wednesday's regular session to $552.90 on CoreWeave's results and a Goldman Sachs call naming it a top semiconductor pick. Broadcom management guides AI chip revenue to roughly $58 billion in 2026, up about 190% year over year, with earnings due in December.
Anthropic set a range of $70 to $78 for 825 million Class A shares, targeting up to $64.4 billion raised at a fully diluted valuation near $1.4 trillion — roughly $1 trillion ex-options. Alongside it, a $26 billion private placement from cornerstone investors including Alphabet, Nvidia, AMD and Microsoft brings the combined raise to as much as $90.4 billion. Note the markdown from earlier chatter of a $2 trillion valuation, a direct read on cooling AI sentiment.
Revenue jumped 168% to $3.66 billion versus about $3.55 billion expected, adjusted EBITDA hit $2.3 billion, and revenue backlog ballooned to $132.5 billion from roughly $104 billion a quarter earlier. The stock ripped 24.9% Wednesday to $60.84 and single-handedly reignited the AI trade — but capex soared to $14.5 billion and only about 26% of that backlog, roughly $34 billion, converts inside 24 months. Shares are down about 6-7% premarket on the Nvidia contagion. Full-year guide: $13.0 to $13.3 billion.
Nebius posted Q3 revenue of $980.8 million against $907.5 million expected, with net loss narrowing to $37.5 million, or 13 cents a share, from $119.6 million a year ago. CEO Arkady Volozh told shareholders the company expects to land near the bottom of its $3.0 to $3.4 billion 2026 revenue range — and that guidance language is what's driving the roughly 8% drop despite the top-line beat. Shares had risen 15.4% Wednesday.
Micron closed up about 6.3% to $733.15 after trading as much as 11.9% higher intraday Wednesday, powered by CoreWeave's beat-and-raise, tight memory supply and HBM repricing optimism. Anthropic's filing also named Micron for a $1 billion slice of its concurrent private placement. KeyBanc's John Vinh reiterated Overweight with a $1,750 target and sees Q4 DRAM pricing up 15% to 20%; Goldman Sachs carries $1,250. Shares are off about 2-3% premarket.
Core CPI rose 0.3% against 0.2% expected and headline came in at 0.4%, flipping the rate narrative entirely. CME FedWatch now shows roughly 90% odds of a 25 basis point December hike, with odds of a half-point move jumping to nearly 11% from zero. Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee called the print "borderline disturbing." Long-duration AI growth names are the most rate-sensitive cohort in the market — this is the quiet headwind underneath every story above.
Fiscal Q4 results hit after the close at 4:30pm ET, with the Street at $4.05 EPS on $10.30 billion revenue against company guidance of $10.25 billion plus or minus $500 million. That guide implies roughly 51% year-over-year revenue growth. Focus is on January-quarter guidance, gross margins and China exposure; the print is a read-across for Lam Research, which just authorized a $25 billion buyback on November 5. AMAT is down about 2.5% premarket, LRCX down 2.9%.
TSMC's board approved investments of up to $500 million each in Anthropic and OpenAI on Tuesday, an unusual move for a pure-play foundry that normally stays out of its customers' cap tables. Shares rose about 1.5% after hours. TSMC also gained nearly 4% earlier in the week on reports it may manufacture 3D DRAM for Nvidia, which would put it in direct competition with Samsung and Micron. ADRs fell in Asian trade Thursday alongside SK Hynix and Advantest on the Nvidia news.
AI Stocks
