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Last Sunday, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) co-founder and then-CEO Jensen Huang admitted to having an extramarital affair with someone who is an alleged Chinese spy. In the following days, The New York Times reported that Huang also had an affair with a direct report. On Thursday, Nvidia announced Huang's resignation.
At its peak, Nvidia had a market cap of $5.8 trillion. At market close on Friday, the stock had a market cap of $3.93 trillion. The stock is down 13% over the past week and 6% since Wednesday's market close.
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So, investors think Nvidia is worth less without Huang in the corner office. Are they right?
There's no doubting the impact that Jensen Huang had on Nvidia's technical abilities. He steered the company to develop cutting-edge products in the GPU realm, along with other products to support them. Nvidia's technology is best-in-class, and with Huang stepping down from the CEO role, that fact likely won't change.
Furthermore, while Huang is unique, there are likely a handful of people within the Nvidia organization that could take over and do a great job.
The best company at leadership transitions has been Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), as it has gone through several transitions and sustained its dominance every time. While Nvidia's situation may be a bit more tumultuous than anything Apple has dealt with, Nvidia can survive.
So, investors need to make a decision about Nvidia stock. Is the only reason you invested in it because of Jensen Huang? Or is it because of Nvidia's leading technology and position within the massive AI build-out?
For me, I invested in Nvidia because of its products and positioning, although having Huang at the helm was a nice touch. The core of my Nvidia investment thesis is still intact, and even though my position is dipping due to the news breaking this week and investors panic-selling, I'm still holding course because the business will likely be just fine.
During last quarter's conference call, Nvidia gave guidance for 70% revenue growth in 2027. Normally, companies don't issue guidance six months in advance, but it's likely that Nvidia has pretty much all of the orders it expects to receive locked in for 2027. It's extremely unlikely that companies will start to cancel orders because of Huang's actions or resignation, so investors should be able to count on that projection.
Furthermore, the product development pipeline is already set for many years in advance. So, what's coming out is already influenced by Huang's fantastic technical mind.
Even though losing Jensen Huang will hurt Nvidia, I think the business is still a great one and in a fantastic position to deliver incredible returns going forward. Just look at how cheap Nvidia's stock has gotten due to the sell-off.
Nvidia trades at about 10 times next year's earnings estimates, which is an incredibly cheap price tag for any stock, let alone one of the world's most dominant companies.
While it may take a few months for the storm surrounding Huang to subside, the market will eventually get back to valuing Nvidia's business for what it is, and the stock could provide major upside as a result. I'm not selling my Nvidia shares right now, and I don't think most investors should, either.
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Keithen Drury has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Is Nvidia Worth This Much Less Without Jensen Huang? was originally published by The Motley Fool
