Nvidia Closes Down 4.3% After Huang Exit, Heads for Sixth Straight Weekly Loss as Senate Banking Chair Asks Huang to Testify Dec. 3

Since Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's CEO on Thursday, Nov. 12, the stock has settled into a smaller loss than the pre-market panic suggested, and Washington has started setting hearing dates.

Nvidia shares closed down 4.3% on Thursday, well off the session's lows. That puts the stock down about 11% for the week and on track for a sixth consecutive weekly decline, its longest losing streak since 2012. Over those six weeks Nvidia has lost 29% of its value, roughly $1.6 trillion in market cap, and it has slipped below Apple in market value.

A slide that started before the scandal

The selling did not begin with the affairs. Nvidia dropped about 9% last week, much of it after the midterm elections, which delivered sweeping Democratic victories and dozens of ballot measures that could slow the AI buildout. Before the vote, the stock had been sliding with the broader AI trade on worries that rising interest rates would hurt debt-heavy companies. Nvidia is highly profitable, but big customers such as the neoclouds depend on debt markets.

The stock now trades at about 12 times expected earnings, its lowest valuation since 2012, following a steep drop from its Oct. 6 record high. Fed funds futures are pricing in 29 basis points of rate hikes in December.

Other stocks on Thursday

The rest of the market took the news in stride. The Dow fell 189.40 points, or 0.36%, to 52,297.09. The S&P 500 slipped 0.35% to 7,592.40 and the Nasdaq fell 0.39% to 25,366.09.

Nvidia's loss was partly offset elsewhere. AMD gained 5.9% and Broadcom rose 5.5%. Chinese tech firms that rely on Nvidia chips fell, with Alibaba down 7.1% in U.S. trading.

"The market's absorbed this reasonably well," Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel, said. He added that "there's a lot that remains unknown about this whole episode," and asked whether more bad news could push the stock lower again.

Gil Luria of D.A. Davidson cut his price target to $200 from $300 and kept a buy rating. "We believe the market has appropriately adjusted for this transition," he wrote. Oppenheimer analysts said they expect fundamentals to "take a backseat near term" and warned Huang's departure "could translate to a lingering share overhang."

Congress sets dates

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., formally asked Huang to appear at a public hearing on Dec. 3 on national security concerns tied to advanced chip exports. He asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify Dec. 10 on the Commerce Department's role in issuing and enforcing export controls.

Scott's letter to Huang requests voluntary testimony. It warns that if Huang declines, "the Committee is prepared to use all tools at our disposal, including subpoenas."

On the House side, Foreign Affairs Committee sources told Fox News they are talking with Huang's team about a date before the end of the current Congress. All three relevant committee chairs are ready to use subpoena power if he refuses. Speaker Mike Johnson said he would back a subpoena if talks stall and described "a developing consensus in Congress" on tighter controls on AI chip exports to Beijing.

Huang has admitted in a letter to employees that he was unfaithful to his wife. He has not addressed the espionage allegations. U.S. authorities suspect the woman, identified in media reports as Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive, of spying for Beijing. Beijing has called the accusations unsubstantiated. Nvidia has said it has no reason to believe national security or its trade secrets were compromised. The Justice Department is investigating whether Megaspeed violated export-control laws, and the FBI is examining the alleged intelligence operation.

Trump's view

President Donald Trump said Huang called him Wednesday and is "going through hell." In an interview with commentator Stephen A. Smith, Trump questioned whether Huang had to step down at all. "The big thing is, was the woman a spy? And I don't know if that's been determined yet," Trump said. "If the woman was not a spy, perhaps it would be different."

That position sits awkwardly with the fact that the board met over a separate relationship with an employee. The New York Times reported that Huang had a relationship with the company's vice president of health care. CNBC reported the board met Wednesday to discuss removing him. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon said the relationship with a direct report made it "much tougher" for the board to keep Huang in the job.

A trade disclosure draws attention

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a leading advocate for restricting lawmakers' stock trading, is under scrutiny after a congressional trade-tracking account flagged a reported Nvidia sale in his disclosures that it said preceded the scandal. Khanna has said neither he nor his family directly made trades. He says his household's investments sit in a diversified trust set up by his in-laws before his marriage and run independently by a third-party trustee.

Upcoming events

Nvidia reports quarterly results Tuesday, Nov. 17, under interim CEO Colette Kress. LSEG's analyst projection is revenue of $108.9 billion, up 91% from a year earlier. The board has not named a permanent successor. Whether Huang agrees to testify voluntarily on Dec. 3, or the committees move to subpoena him, is still open.