What does Jensen Huang's departure from Nvidia mean for the AI bull market?
Should we be concerned now that the architect of the AI bull market has been forced to leave the Nvidia ship? Here's what analysts say.
Jensen Huang's unexpected departure from Nvidia presents investors with a new question. Because how much of the AI story actually depended on one man? Nvidia lost more than 10 percent on Thursday and is now more than 20 percent below its peak. This comes just before the quarterly results on November 17.
Huang was much more than just the CEO of Nvidia. Under his leadership, the company grew into the central hub of the global AI investment cycle.
Nvidia sells chips to companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and CoreWeave, but at the same time also invests in various customers and partners.
This created a network in which suppliers, buyers and financiers became increasingly intertwined. According to some analysts, Huang personally played a key role in setting up such deals.
His departure therefore creates uncertainty as to whether Nvidia can continue with the same strategy.
Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta and Oracle are expected to invest around $660 billion in AI infrastructure this year. That is about 60 percent more than in 2025.
But financing is becoming increasingly important. CoreWeave bonds with maturities through 2032 now yield more than 16 percent interest. At the same time, the U.S. 10-year yield is once again heading towards 5 percent.
This will make future data centers and chips significantly more expensive to finance.
Valuations also remain extreme. The CAPE ratio of the S&P 500 is around 40, close to the record of 44.2 during the dot-com bubble. In addition, an increasing number of market participants are signaling that various bubble indicators are now in a late stage.
However, the story is not completely broken. AMD has rebounded strongly from its recent low, and the S&P 500 is still only a few percentage points below its record high.
The coming weeks will therefore be important. Nvidia will release its financial results on November 17, Anthropic is targeting an IPO around November 19, and the Federal Reserve will make a new interest rate decision on December 9.
Huang's departure does not derail the AI investment cycle. But just as financing costs are rising and valuations are under pressure, one of the key architects of the financial ecosystem behind that cycle is disappearing.