Nvidia perpetual futures on Binance fell by more than 8% below the US close late Wednesday, after reports emerged that the chipmaker’s board was looking to kick out CEO Jensen Huang.
While the board’s decision is still unconfirmed, traders got their first chance to react to the news through crypto venues since it came out; Nasdaq was already closed.
Traders Price in Potential Jensen Huang Exit
According to reports from the New York Times and Bloomberg, the Nvidia board is preparing to remove Huang from his position and has even engaged an outside firm to identify possible replacements and is also considering appointing an interim CEO.
This has been caused by revelations that Huang had at least two extramarital affairs, one with someone working at the company and another with an alleged Chinese spy, Alice Huang. On Sunday, the Nvidia co-founder sent out an email to employees of the firm apologizing for his conduct, with the board then opening an independent investigation into the matter.
Furthermore, as CryptoPotato reported, a shareholder, Mark Kistenmacher, has also filed a lawsuit claiming that Nvidia and Huang misled investors about the latter’s relationship with the alleged Chinese operative, who is a former executive of Megaspeed International, a company that had reportedly bought more than $4.8 billion of Nvidia chips over the past two years.
According to Binance Research, when reports emerged that the Nvidia board intended to do away with Huang, they triggered an immediate repricing in its NVDAUSDT perpetual futures market, well after US equities had closed.
Nvidia had ended that session at about $173.73, which was actually a nearly 3% improvement on where it had started the day. However, after the leadership news broke, the contract on Binance dropped by about 8.8% below that, touching an index level of 92.6 when the previous close had been set at 100.
There was also quite a lot of trading activity, with NVDAUSDT recording $2 billion in 24-hour volume. Per the Binance report, about half of that came after the US cash session had ended, suggesting that traders were actively responding to the reports rather than waiting for Nvidia shares to resume regular trading today.
Analysts Say Nvidia Shouldn’t Fire Huang
Not everyone thinks removing Huang is a good idea. Market commentators at The Kobeissi Letter argued that the company could be hurt if it tries to replace an outperforming executive without a clear successor.
“Do not fire Jensen Huang,” they wrote in a post on X. “There is no clear replacement for Jensen Huang. We are confident that his departure would ultimately be a net negative for Nvidia, its shareholders, and the AI Revolution.”
Instead, they urged the board to do a thorough investigation and consult with shareholders “with a strong emphasis on the latter.” They also pointed to Nvidia’s 35% dip in about 26 trading days, half of that coming as a result of the scandal, and pointed out that the market had priced in the removal of Huang by approximately 80%.
“Why take an action with massive downside potential when the market has already priced in much of that risk?” asked Kobeissi.
In their opinion, while there’s some downside to keeping Huang, the potential upside could be “tremendous.”
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