Nvidia Stock Slumps. Everything Goes Wrong Everywhere, All at Once

Dow Jones
27 Mar

Nvidia stock was heading for its second-largest drop in March as the potential for stricter regulations on its chips in China sends shares lower, a negative report on data-center spending, and other factors cause investors to flee tech stocks.

Nvidia stock slumped 5.7% to $113.76 on Wednesday, while the benchmark S&P 500 was down 1.1%. Other chip stocks declined too. Advanced Micro Devices fell 4%, while Broadcom stumbled 4.8%, and Intel finished down 3.2%. The Technology Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund was off 2.2%.

The drop comes as more questions swirl around the future for Nvidia’s chips in China. Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai said he was “astounded” by U.S. technology companies’ spending on artificial-intelligence infrastructure on Tuesday at the HSBC Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong and questioned the need for spending hundreds of billions on AI data centers.

Meanwhile, the U.S. on Tuesday added dozens of Chinese companies to a trade blacklist over national security concerns, requiring government approval before they can buy American technology. Among those added were subsidiaries of Inspur Group, China’s largest server maker and a major customer for Nvidia, Intel, and Advanced Micro Devices. 

There are also potential concerns about pressures from Beijing. Regulators in China have been discouraging the country’s large technology companies from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chip—specifically designed to satisfy U.S. sanctions on exports—as it breaches energy-efficiency rules, the Financial Times reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. 

The rules haven’t been strictly enforced and aren’t yet affecting H20 sales but the company is seeking to arrange a meeting with Chinese regulators and is preparing to make adjustments to the chips which could make it less competitive, according to the FT. 

“Our products provide superb energy efficiency and value in every market we serve. As technology moves rapidly, export control policy should be adjusted to allow U.S. firms to offer the most energy efficient products possible, while still achieving the Administration’s national security goals,” an Nvidia spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Nothing fundamental, you’ll note, is going wrong, but everything related to sentiment sure seems to be. Mizuho analyst Daniel O’Regan even added a few more, ranging from a TD Cowen note that pointed to a slowdown in data-center spending and auto tariffs, But really, it’s just a desire to dump tech and buy safer fare. “We continue to see money coming OUT of anything Ai related and into [more] lower value/defensive themes like Telco and Media,” O’Regan writes. “People are shooting 1st asking questions later.”

Wake me when the questions start.

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