On a Tuesday in early September, the market value of Nvidia, the company that has become the engine of the artificial intelligence boom, fell by roughly $279 billion in a single session, the largest one-day loss any stock has ever recorded. The fall dragged the wider market down with it and reminded everyone how quickly a story of inevitability can turn fragile. The same day brought reports that the Justice Department had escalated an antitrust inquiry and served the company with a subpoena, raising a question as old as industry itself: whether dominance is the reward of superior craft or the
Nvidia Shares Rout Costs Jensen Huang $9.8 Billion as DOJ Antitrust Probe Escalates
The biggest single-day plunge in a stock ever recorded
Mark
Start with the number. $279 billion in a day. How big is that, really?
Mimi
It's the largest single-day market value loss ever recorded for a stock, bigger than Meta's $251 billion in February 2022. It also dragged the broader market to its worst day since August 5.
Mark
And Huang personally lost $9.8 billion. Is that a firm figure?
Luke
No. It's an estimate from Bloomberg and Forbes, which model the fortunes of the ultra-rich. Reasonable, but not an audited number.
Mark
Then there's the DOJ news. What do we actually know?
Luke
Bloomberg reported it, citing anonymous sources, after the close: the DOJ escalated its probe and served a subpoena. Nvidia didn't deny it, but it hasn't confirmed it either. Not denying isn't confirming.
Mimi
Its statement was about merit: it wins on benchmark results and customer value, and customers can choose. That's a defense of the product, not a comment on the subpoena.
Mark
Why would a 90% market share draw regulators?
Mimi
Because nearly everyone building frontier AI needs these chips. But share alone isn't illegal. Analyst Ray Wong said that without showing consumer harm, regulators don't have much of a case.
Luke
And whether that 90% comes from anticompetitive conduct or better products is exactly what's unresolved. Nothing in the reporting answers it.
Mark
Was the antitrust news the cause of Tuesday's drop?
Luke
No, it came after the close. The drop came first, tied to cooled sentiment, Blackwell delays, and doubts from BlackRock and JPMorgan about whether AI revenue will justify spending.
Mimi
Acemoglu's 0.06% annual productivity estimate is one economist's projection, but it's the kind of number that makes investors pause.
O Pulso
- Nvidia's market value vanished by about $279 billion in one session, the sharpest single-day loss ever recorded for a stock.
- The rout spread across U.S. equities, their worst day since August, and wiped billions from the fortunes of tech's richest figures.
- After the close, Bloomberg reported a DOJ antitrust subpoena, and Nvidia's silence on it left the market to fill the gap with fear.
- Nvidia answers that it wins on merit through benchmarks and customer choice, while regulators must prove consumers are actually harmed.
- Analysts warn AI revenues may lag years behind the enormous capital spending, and with the stock already shaken, Wednesday's open will show whether the sell-off deepens.
On a Tuesday in early September, the market value of Nvidia, the company that has become the engine of the artificial intelligence boom, fell by roughly $279 billion in a single session, the largest one-day loss any stock has ever recorded. The fall dragged the wider market down with it and reminded everyone how quickly a story of inevitability can turn fragile. The same day brought reports that the Justice Department had escalated an antitrust inquiry and served the company with a subpoena, raising a question as old as industry itself: whether dominance is the reward of superior craft or the product of conduct that shuts out rivals. The answer will be sought in courtrooms and in the slower judgment of investors who are still asking whether the money pouring into AI will ever come back as revenue.
On Tuesday, Nvidia's market value fell by about $279 billion in a single session, the largest one-day loss ever recorded for any stock, surpassing the $251 billion Meta lost in February 2022. The fall pulled U.S. equities to their worst day since August, a session that observers compared to the 1987 crash. The richest people in tech felt it too, and Jensen Huang, the company's founder, lost an estimated $9.8 billion, though he remains a centibillionaire.
After the market closed, Bloomberg reported that the Justice Department had escalated an antitrust investigation into Nvidia and that the company had been served a subpoena. The report relied on anonymous sources, and Huang's spokespeople did not deny it. Late in the day Nvidia said it wins on merit, pointing to its benchmark results and to customers who are free to choose.
The scrutiny follows from Nvidia's rise. Huang, a Taiwanese immigrant who once washed dishes at a Denny's, built a company around processors designed to do many calculations at once. Those chips outpaced rivals' processors for data-heavy work, and they became the foundation for AI systems. Nvidia now controls roughly 90% of the AI chip market, and companies chasing artificial general intelligence depend on it. Regulators must decide whether that dominance is illegal or simply earned, and one analyst argued that without proof of consumer harm there is no real case.
The legal news hit a stock already losing ground after cooling valuations, weak guidance and delays to its next chip. Two Wall Street voices added to the unease, with BlackRock doubting AI revenues will soon match the investment and JPMorgan warning against the hype. What comes next is Wednesday's open, confirmation of the subpoena, and whether doubts about AI revenue deepen the sell-off.
On Tuesday, Nvidia's market value fell by about $279 billion in a single session, the largest one-day loss ever recorded for a stock. It surpassed the previous mark, the $251 billion Meta shed in February 2022. The drop pulled the wider market down with it, and U.S. equities had their worst day since August 5, a session so punishing that it had been likened to the 1987 Black Monday crash.
The sell-off hit the richest names in tech, with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos each watching billions disappear from their net worth. None lost as much as Jensen Huang, Nvidia's founder and chief executive. Estimates from Bloomberg and Forbes, which track the fortunes of the ultra-wealthy, put his one-day loss at $9.8 billion. He was a centibillionaire when the week began, and he still is, but the week was not over.
After the market closed, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Department of Justice had escalated an investigation into possible antitrust behavior by Nvidia, and that the company had been served a subpoena. The report relied on anonymous sources. When Fortune asked for comment, Huang's spokespeople did not deny it. Late Tuesday the company sent a statement saying Nvidia wins on merit, as shown by its benchmark results and its value to customers, who can choose. Shares were expected to open lower on Wednesday.
The scrutiny follows from Nvidia's position. Huang, a Taiwanese immigrant who once washed dishes at a Denny's, founded the company in one. He set out to build better processors for video game graphics, doing calculations in parallel rather than in sequence. That design let Nvidia's graphics processing units handle huge volumes of data faster and more efficiently than rivals' central processing units. Bitcoin miners adopted them, and so did AI companies training large language models such as OpenAI's GPT-4.
Nvidia now controls roughly 90% of the AI chip market. Companies with ambitions to build artificial general intelligence, OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI among them, depend on its chips. Last month, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt advised investors not to pass on the stock, arguing it will capture most of the hardware spending in the field. Whether that dominance reflects illegal anticompetitive conduct or the rewards of superior manufacturing is a question Lina Khan's Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department must now weigh. Ray Wong, a Silicon Valley analyst at Constellation Research, told Bloomberg Television that if regulators cannot show consumers are being harmed, they do not really have a case.
The legal news landed on a stock already losing its footing. Nvidia briefly became the world's most valuable company this summer during a frenzy for AI shares. Sentiment has cooled amid stretched valuations, disappointing guidance for its fiscal third quarter and delays to Blackwell, its next-generation AI chip architecture.
Two Wall Street voices added to the unease on Tuesday. Jean Boivin, BlackRock's global head of research, noted that recent research has raised doubts about whether AI revenues will catch up with the investment pouring in. He wrote that it will take time for big tech revenues to reflect AI capital spending, and that the buildout will take years, not quarters. JPMorgan, for its part, pointed to MIT economist Daron Acemoglu's warning against believing the hype. Acemoglu has projected AI productivity gains of just 0.06% per year, far short of what current spending requires. Michael Cembalest, chairman of market and investment strategy at JPMorgan's asset management arm, wrote that it is probably too soon to worry about the lack of a killer generative AI app, but that the clock is ticking.
What to watch now is Wednesday's open, whether the subpoena report is confirmed, and whether regulators can show consumer harm. Equally important is whether doubts about AI revenue deepen the sell-off.
Citações Notáveis
Nvidia wins on merit, as reflected in our benchmark result and value to customers, who can choose.— Nvidia statement
If they can't show that the consumers are being harmed, then they really don't have a case.— Ray Wong, Constellation Research
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