Jim Cramer on Nvidia’s stock amid reports CEO Jensen Huang may be ousted
Jim Cramer said Wednesday night that he was saddened by a news report that indicated Nvidia’s board of directors is preparing to fire CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang amid a widening extramarital affair scandal. “Look, a Jensen-less Nvidia is an Nvidia many will not want to own,” Jim said on “Mad Money,” as not one but two bombshell articles were hitting the tape and the stock started sinking in after-hours trading. “I’ve always said, ‘own it, don’t trade it.’ Well, I didn’t think [anything like] this would happen. I don’t know anyone who did. It’s very sobering.” After the show, Jim indicated that at this point he doesn’t want to buy any more shares of Nvidia into the scandal-driven sell-off, nor does he want to sell ahead of next Tuesday’s earnings report. However, he did express a belief that the company can still succeed over the long term even if it is without Huang at the helm. Shares of Nvidia fell more than 8% in extended trading Wednesday after The Wall Street Journal reported that the chipmaker’s board was preparing to oust Huang, with plans to meet as soon as Wednesday to discuss his future. The Journal’s story landed shortly after The New York Times reported that Huang had an affair with an executive who reports to him, Kimberly Powell, the chip giant’s vice president of healthcare. Nvidia did not immediately respond to the Club’s request for comment on Wednesday’s reporting from The Journal and The Times. The reports came on top of The Times reporting Sunday that Nvidia’s board was investigating an affair that Huang admitted to having with an executive at Singapore-based cloud computing company Megaspeed — a woman U.S. intelligence agencies believe is a Chinese spy. On Tuesday, Nvidia’s board said it hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to lead the inquiry. The Club has owned a position in Nvidia since 2019, years before the company’s graphics processing units helped enable the generative AI boom, turning Nvidia into a juggernaut stock and vaulting Huang into rockstar CEO status. We downgraded our rating on Nvidia to a hold-equivalent 2 on Tuesday due to the uncertainty around Huang’s future at the company. Earlier Wednesday, we said we wanted to initiate a position in rival Advanced Micro Devices due, in part, to a belief that AMD will win business as a result of the Huang scandal. However, our restrictions — which prevent us from trading any stock that Jim mentions on CNBC for a 72-hour period — stood in our way. We did, however, add AMD to our Bullpen watchlist , reflecting our intentions to initiate a stake once our restrictions lift. We also plan to exit Intel , while building up an AMD position. Jim said he vastly prefers AMD over Nvidia in this moment. Nevertheless, Jim said his experience watching Apple thrive after the death of co-founder and visionary CEO Steve Jobs is one reason why he doesn’t want to blow out of Nvidia despite Huang potentially no longer serving as its chief executive. Tim Cook took Apple to even greater heights during his 15-year tenure, before passing the torch to now-CEO John Ternus on Sept. 1. Despite Huang’s close association with Nvidia, Jim said he believes there is plenty of talent inside the company that can step into a potential leadership vacuum. In particular, he mentioned Ian Buck, a vice president who created the CUDA software program that was integral in Nvidia evolving from a video-game chip company into a data center and AI titan. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long NVDA. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
