Key Highlights

● Nvidia rose about 2.9% to $173.73 on Wednesday as chip stocks rebounded.

● Shares dropped about 8% after hours on reports of a possible CEO removal.

● CoreWeave's strong quarter lifted AI hardware names and eased infrastructure Demand worries.

● Nvidia reports third-quarter results on Nov. 17 against a $108 billion Revenue guide.

What made Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) the most actively traded U.S. stock by dollar Volume on Wednesday was two stories pulling in opposite directions. During regular hours, the world's most valuable chipmaker rose nearly 3% as a broad semiconductor rebound, set off by Blowout results from AI cloud provider CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV), lifted almost everything tied to artificial intelligence hardware. Nvidia rose about 2.9% to $173.73 during the session.

Shortly after the bell, the mood flipped. Nvidia shares fell about 8% in after-hours trading after The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to remove chief executive Jensen Huang and The New York Times reported a second extramarital affair, this one with a current Nvidia executive.

A relief rally, then a governance shock

The day's gains started with CoreWeave. The GPU cloud operator, one of Nvidia's largest customers and a company in which Nvidia holds a stake, reported third-quarter revenue of $3.66 billion, up 168% from a year earlier. It also raised its 2026 revenue forecast to $13 billion to $13.3 billion and reported a revenue Backlog of $132.5 billion. CoreWeave chief executive Michael Intrator said there was "no reason" to expect changes to the Nvidia Partnership and called Nvidia "an unbelievably important technology company." That eased investor worries about AI infrastructure demand, which had been building since last week's midterm elections. The S&P 500 rose 1.31% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.60%.

The governance story has been unfolding since Sunday, Nov. 8. That day, Nvidia's board said a committee of independent directors, working with outside counsel, would investigate reports that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. The board said it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised, and that it had confidence in Huang.

Huang admitted in a letter to employees that he had not been faithful to his wife. Earlier reporting tied him to Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, whom U.S. authorities concluded was a Chinese intelligence asset. China's foreign ministry called the spying narrative "a groundless accusation." Nvidia shares fell more than 4% on Monday. The board has hired Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to run the investigation, led by partner Joon H. Kim, a former U.S. attorney. Nvidia declined to comment to the Times on the new report.

What Nvidia does

Nvidia designs the graphics processing units and networking systems that power most of the world's AI Training and inference. It also sells the CUDA software platform that developers build on. Data Center products now make up the vast majority of its sales. Beyond hyperscalers such as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), its customers include specialized "neoclouds" like CoreWeave. Nvidia invested $2 billion in CoreWeave in January 2026 at $87.20 per share. The two companies plan more than 5 gigawatts of AI data center capacity by 2030.

Results and guidance

Nvidia's most recent report covered the second quarter of fiscal 2027 and was released in late August. Revenue reached $96.2 billion, up 18% from the prior quarter and more than double the year-earlier figure. Data center revenue was $89.0 billion, up 117% from a year earlier. GAAP gross Margin was 75%, and GAAP diluted Earnings were $2.46 per share.

For the third quarter, the company guided to revenue of about $108 billion, plus or minus 2%, with a GAAP gross margin of about 74%. Huang said at the time that "the AI infrastructure buildout is at full steam." Nvidia also warned in August that rising memory prices would weigh on gross margin in the January quarter, pointing to 71% to 72%. That is a reminder that the memory boom lifting Micron (NASDAQ:MU) and Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) is a cost for Nvidia.

Valuation versus peers

Nvidia trades at about 22 times trailing earnings with a Market Value of roughly $4.19 trillion. That is a modest multiple for a company still growing revenue at triple-digit rates. It is cheaper than Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) at about 44.7 times and far below Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) at about 117.6 times, though above memory makers Micron (about 10.8) and Sandisk (about 7.8), whose earnings are seen as more cyclical. The multiple suggests the market is already pricing in some risk, whether from slowing growth, competition from custom chips, or now Leadership uncertainty.

The bull and bear cases

Bulls point to demand that keeps outrunning supply. CoreWeave's backlog more than doubled from a year earlier, and its chief executive publicly reaffirmed the Nvidia relationship in the middle of the controversy. Nvidia's guidance implies another quarter of double-digit sequential growth. Wall Street's consensus rating remains Strong Buy. Some investors also argue that the company's engineering depth goes well beyond one person.

Bears now have a more concrete concern. The Journal's report that the board is preparing an ouster turns a reputational issue into a possible change at the top of a company whose identity has been tied to its co-founder for more than three decades. Huang owns about 3.6% of the company, which makes him a major holder but not a controlling one. Beyond governance, Washington is a source of political risk. China hawks favor tighter export controls, and the midterm results energized opposition to new data center construction. Rising memory costs could also squeeze the company's margins.

Nvidia's Nov. 17 Test

The near-term calendar is tightly packed. Thursday's session will show whether the roughly 8% after-hours drop holds once full trading volume arrives. Investors will be looking for any statement from the board or from Huang responding to the Journal and Times reports. Nvidia is scheduled to hold its third-quarter conference call on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 2 p.m. Pacific time, according to its Investor relations site. The results will be compared against the $108 billion revenue guide, and management will likely face questions about leadership as much as about data center shipments or fourth-quarter guidance. The outcome of the board's investigation, and whether CoreWeave and other large customers keep repeating Intrator's reassurance, may matter as much as the numbers.