Nvidia slips toward $160 support as board courts Arm's Haas

What happened

Nvidia shares fell again in the session covered by CoinGape, losing 2.01% to close at $162.85 before slipping another 1.13% to $161.01 in after-hours trading. That kept the stock just above the $160 mark that has become the reference point for near-term traders. The move extended a turbulent stretch that began with a drop of as much as 13% on Thursday; retail buying later trimmed that loss to roughly 4%, and the shares finished about 6.3% lower across two sessions compared with Wednesday's close of $173.73.

The selling has coincided with a leadership shake-up. The Financial Times reported that Nvidia's board approached Arm chief executive Rene Haas about replacing co-founder Jensen Huang, who resigned as CEO. Arm shares fell 6.5% during Friday's session before closing about 5% lower, according to CoinGape. Haas is one of several candidates under consideration, has not received a job offer, and the board has said it is still choosing a search firm and has not begun formal talks with candidates. Arm declined to comment, and Reuters said it could not independently confirm the report.

Nvidia has installed finance chief Colette Kress as interim CEO and named longtime director Harvey Jones as board chair while the search continues. Huang, who ran the company since 1993, stepped down after acknowledging an extramarital affair, and the board commissioned an independent review of his conduct. In a separate thread, Elon Musk said on X that he would sign a petition calling for Huang's reinstatement; a letter circulating online was reported to carry more than 65,000 signatures, including those of shareholders and current and former employees. Nvidia declined to comment on Musk's post or the employee campaign.

Why it matters

A CEO transition at the world's largest AI chipmaker raises questions about how smoothly Nvidia can keep to its technology roadmap and maintain customer relationships while an interim leader runs the company. Coinpedia reported that the uncertainty has redirected some investor attention toward alternative AI chipmakers, with AMD and Broadcom drawing buying interest as ways to gain exposure to data-center growth.

AMD climbed 5.27% to $582.05 on November 12, and William Blair analyst Sebastien Naji upgraded the stock to Outperform, citing Nvidia's leadership uncertainty and Intel's supply constraints as openings for AMD, according to Coinpedia. The shift comes against a softer backdrop for risk assets more broadly: CoinGape reported the crypto market fell 2.25% to $2.27 trillion over 24 hours, with Bitcoin dropping below $68,000, Ether near $1,900 and XRP below $1 as expectations of higher interest rates weighed on prices.

What the data shows

CoinGape's read of the chart puts Nvidia's Friday open near $170, an intraday low around $158.40 and a close that recovered part of the drop. The $160 zone is the level in focus: a sustained move below it would bring the $158.40 low back into view, while holding above $160 and climbing past $165 would put Thursday's close of $166.19 in play. A push through that level could set up another test of $170, where the early Friday rally stalled.

The comparison with AMD rests on reported results rather than sentiment. Coinpedia noted AMD's third-quarter revenue of $13.38 billion, up 45% year over year, non-GAAP earnings per share of $2.09, up 74%, and data-center revenue growth of 97%, driven by Instinct GPUs and EPYC server processors. Management guided fourth-quarter revenue to about $17 billion, plus or minus $300 million, and CEO Lisa Su expects overall revenue growth above 80% in 2027. The article placed AMD's immediate resistance at $650 to $680, with support at $550, $534 and $510.

Background

Huang built Nvidia from a graphics-chip maker into a central supplier of processors for artificial intelligence, and his exit marks the first change at the top since the company's early years. Haas, who has led the SoftBank-backed Arm since February 2022, spent roughly seven years at Nvidia earlier in his career, rising to vice president and general manager of its computing products business, and he joined Arm in 2013.

Under Haas, Arm returned to public markets in 2023 and secured a place in the Nasdaq-100, and the company says its revenue and profit have nearly doubled since he took charge. The report of an approach to a sitting CEO of another listed chip designer adds a complication, because Arm's own investors reacted immediately to the news.

What is still unclear

Several details remain unresolved. It is not known whether Haas would accept the role if offered, and Nvidia's board has not begun formal conversations with candidates. The Financial Times account has not been independently verified, and Nvidia and Arm have not confirmed it. It is also unclear which petition Musk meant when he said he would sign one, and CoinGape noted that Nvidia declined to comment on his post or on the employee campaign that followed Huang's exit.

What to watch

The next signposts are procedural: when the board names a search firm, whether a formal approach or offer follows, and whether the interim arrangement under Kress and Jones steadies internal and customer confidence. Commentary cited by Coinpedia suggests customers would need to qualify alternative processors and rework software and supply arrangements before shifting large workloads, so any competitive gain would show up gradually rather than at once.

On the price side, traders are watching whether Nvidia holds $160 or retests $158.40, and whether it can reclaim $165, then $166.19 and $170. For AMD, the question is whether the recent interest converts into sustained revenue and share gains after the run toward the $650 to $680 resistance band. The broader crypto drawdown that CoinGape linked to rate expectations is worth tracking as a gauge of appetites for risk across technology and digital assets.

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