Nvidia's market cap evaporates by 801 trillion won due to Jensen Hwang's resignation (comprehensive)

As CEO Jensen Huang suddenly resigned due to an affair scandal, Nvidia's market capitalization evaporated by more than $600 billion (approximately KRW 801 trillion) at one point during the day.

On the 12th (local time), Nvidia's stock price closed at $166.19 on the New York Stock Exchange, down 4.3% from the previous day.

The market capitalization was calculated to be about $4.013 trillion, a decrease of about $182 billion (about 242 trillion won) in one day.

The market capitalization was below $4 trillion for most of the day, but narrowed the decline at the last minute and barely maintained the $4 trillion mark. NVIDIA's market cap has been closing above $4 trillion since July of last year.

On this day, with the news of CEO Hwang's resignation, Nvidia's stock price plummeted 13.1%, starting at $151 and falling to $148.80 during the day.

It is a 14.3% drop from the previous day's closing price, and is the lowest level in about 17 months since June of last year.

As a result, its market capitalization shrank by $602 billion (approximately KRW 801 trillion) to $3.593 trillion, putting it behind Microsoft (MS) at one point.

However, the decline was reduced due to an influx of low-price buyers.

According to Reuters, on Fidelity's individual investor platform, Nvidia buy orders were five times greater than sell orders.

Trade also exploded. As of early this afternoon, Nvidia's trading volume was approximately $90 billion, close to one-third of the total trading volume of stocks included in the S&P 500 index. The all-time record for single-day trading volume is $104 billion, set by Nvidia on March 8, 2024.

Based on the closing price, it maintained second place in market cap.

The gap with Microsoft's market cap ($3.884 trillion) is approximately $129 billion. The closing price is the lowest in over 7 months since March 30 ($164.79).

Compared to the 6th, right before CEO Hwang admitted to the affair, the stock price fell 11.0%, and the market capitalization decreased by about $494 billion (about 657 trillion won).

Compared to the all-time high closing price on the 6th of last month ($239.24), it fell 30.5%, and the market capitalization of about $1.764 trillion (approximately 2347 trillion won) disappeared. It fell about 11% compared to the beginning of the year.

Wall Street all lowered its standards. On this day alone, 8 companies lowered their investment opinions, and 20 companies lowered their target stock prices this week.

Evercore ISI lowered its investment opinion to 'market rate of return' and cut its target stock price by 60% from $465 to $186. Citigroup lowered its stock price from $285 to $225, and Oppenheimer withdrew its target stock price.

“Jensen is Nvidia. Nvidia is where it is today because of decisions he made 10 years ago,” said Bernstein analyst Stacey Rasgone. “I can’t think of anyone who would be better positioned to make decisions for the next 10 years.”

Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh predicted that this incident will be a "significant obstacle" to Nvidia's stock price over the next six to seven months.

NVIDIA will announce its third quarter earnings as scheduled on the 17th.