OMM Newsroom
Jensen Huang’s resignation as chief executive of Nvidia caused volatility in global technology markets on Friday, AnewZ reported. Shares in Chinese artificial intelligence companies fell sharply, while chipmakers in the United States and Europe also came under pressure. Investors are assessing the potential impact on the sector of the departure of one of the most prominent figures in the AI industry.
Huang resigned on Thursday following reports about extramarital relationships, including a relationship with a woman whom U.S. officials suspect of being a Chinese spy. His departure has raised questions about Nvidia’s role in financing the AI industry, the direction of U.S. chip export policy and the future of relations between Washington and Beijing.
Nvidia shares rise after weekly losses
Nvidia shares rose 1.8% in premarket trading on Friday. However, they had fallen about 11% over the four sessions through Thursday, putting the stock on course for its longest weekly losing streak since October 2012.
Investors said Huang’s departure could prompt closer scrutiny of the company’s financing deals with other AI firms. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri said Huang had played a unique role in many respects and that the impact of his departure could be widely felt.
Arcuri said Nvidia had become an important source of financing for new cloud service providers, AI model developers, partners and suppliers. He said Huang’s successor could pursue a similar strategy, but the company might pause in the near term, both in its willingness and its ability to continue such deals.
Sean Peche, founder of Ranmore Fund Management, said he was bearish on AI-related stocks: “You need to get out before these waves crash. There is a big wave in AI.”
Chinese companies’ shares fall sharply
Investors were concerned that Huang’s resignation could widen the technology divide between Beijing and Washington. In Hong Kong, shares of Z.AI, one of China’s leading AI model makers, fell more than 10%, while rival MiniMax dropped to a record low.
Shares in data-center equipment makers Zhongji Innolight and Eoptolink Technology, which rely heavily on the U.S. market, also fell sharply on mainland China. Wu Zhou, a fund manager at Shenzhen Deyuan Investment, said the market feared that the United States could reduce purchases from Chinese suppliers following Huang’s resignation.
Washington is considering whether to block imports of new optical transceivers from China on national security grounds. Such a move could deal another blow to both companies.
The Hang Seng Tech Index fell 3%, bringing its weekly decline to about 6.5%. Shares in Alibaba and Tencent, which have significant exposure to AI, also fell about 3%.
Chinese domestic chipmakers bucked the broader decline. Wu Zhou said U.S. restrictions, including limits on access to computing power abroad, could strengthen local competitors. Shenzhen Intellifusion Technologies rose 6%, while Cambricon Technologies gained 0.6%, bringing its weekly increase to 22%. The gains partly limited losses in the Shanghai Composite, which ended the day down 0.6%.
U.S. debates tighter controls on chip exports
The scandal emerged days before the presidents of the United States and China are due to meet in Shenzhen at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday that support was growing in Congress for tightening restrictions on chip exports to China.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Huang, asking them to testify about developments at Nvidia. Research firm Gavekal Dragonomics said the scandal and a U.S. Congress “more skeptical of AI” would make it increasingly difficult for Chinese companies to access the advanced computing power they need. The firm expects Washington to tighten export controls by the end of the year.
Morningstar senior equity analyst Chelsea Tam said they expect restrictions on China’s access to U.S. chips by the U.S. government to negatively affect all companies working on large language models.
Projects worth more than $3 billion in China rely on Nvidia chips
According to a Reuters investigation, the value of computing projects in China built around Nvidia processors subject to restrictions exceeds $3 billion. The investigation covered more than 150 procurement notices, investment plans, construction contracts and company disclosures.
The investigation identified projects and equipment contracts worth 23 billion yuan ($3.2 billion), spanning coastal technology hubs and remote western provinces. Local authorities, universities and regional computing centers are involved in the projects. Total investment includes buildings, power systems and other infrastructure, as well as chips.
The projects were designed to use Nvidia’s H100, H200 and H800 processors, which are subject to export restrictions. Thousands of Nvidia chips were expected to be installed at one site in Gansu province by the end of the year, but it is unclear whether they were delivered.
Huang said last year that the company’s market share in China had fallen from 95% to zero. Nvidia has said U.S. export controls have effectively excluded it from China’s data-center market. However, an IDC report cited by Reuters in October estimated that Nvidia accounted for 34% of AI accelerators supplied to China in the first half of 2026.
These figures reflect different measures and do not establish how restricted processors reached Chinese customers. None of the projects was linked to Megaspeed, a Singapore-based Nvidia cloud partner at the center of allegations involving Huang. Megaspeed has denied illegally diverting chips to China; no public finding has confirmed that Huang violated export control laws.
Nvidia and China’s Ministry of Commerce did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Sunny Chung, an analyst at the Jamestown Foundation, said Washington should focus not only on who appears to be buying the chips, but also on who ultimately uses the computing power and for what purpose.
Declines spread across Asian and European markets
In South Korea, shares in Nvidia customer Naver fell more than 5%, while the Kospi index lost 0.85%. MSCI’s broad index of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan gave up earlier gains to fall 0.42%. Japan’s Nikkei index rose 0.55%.
In Europe, the STOXX 600 fell 0.2% from the record high it reached on Thursday. Technology shares declined 0.9%. Shares in Germany’s Infineon and Aixtron fell about 2%, while AI equipment suppliers Schneider Electric and Legrand edged lower.
Fiona Cincotta, an independent market analyst based in London, said pressure on the technology sector amid developments around Nvidia had also had some effect on other companies. Analysts said Europe’s relatively limited exposure to AI-related stocks could shield the region from more severe losses.
Some analysts believe Nvidia’s leadership change could benefit competitors. Citi analyst John Zaunderer named AMD, Arista and Broadcom among potential winners. However, AMD and Broadcom shares fell more than 2.5% in premarket trading on Friday.
AI chip and cloud services company Cerebras rose more than 16% after raising its 2026 revenue forecast and naming Microsoft as a customer. Uncertainty also spread beyond the technology sector: Nasdaq 100 futures edged lower, while copper prices were expected to end the week down amid concerns about weakening demand. Shares in Australia-listed Capstone Copper fell more than 5%.
Rising yields on U.S. government bonds also weighed on investor sentiment. Market participants assessed the possibility that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates more than expected next month. According to the CME FedWatch tool, investors put the likelihood of a half-percentage-point rate increase at 12% to 13%.
China’s domestic AI capabilities could reduce reliance over time
Some analysts believe China’s efforts to develop its own AI technologies could reduce its dependence on Nvidia over time. Alex Yao, co-head of Asia technology, media and telecommunications at JPMorgan, said most Chinese AI labs still use Nvidia solutions and that the situation could become more difficult in the near term.
Yao added that over a three-to-five-year horizon, this would not become a major obstacle, saying China was working to build a domestic AI ecosystem.
