The AI industry lost its best-known leader this week. On Thursday, November 12, 2026, Nvidia announced that co-founder Jensen Huang had resigned as president, CEO and board member, effective immediately. His resignation followed reports of two extramarital affairs, one with a woman U.S. authorities suspect of spying for China. CFO Colette Kress is serving as interim CEO, and former Synopsys CEO Harvey Jones became the board's first-ever chair. The board is considering both internal and external candidates.
Nvidia shares fell more than 13% at the open on November 12 before closing down 4.3%. "The risk is not that Nvidia suddenly loses its technology roadmap," ClearBridge Investments' Michael Feldman told Reuters. "The risk is execution."
Money first moved toward Nvidia's competitors. By Friday, November 13, though, the 10-year Treasury yield had climbed to 5.10% and chip stocks were selling off again. Two companies pitched as Nvidia alternatives show how uncertain that bet still is.
Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO)
Broadcom designs custom AI accelerators, known as ASICs, for a small group of hyperscale customers. The best-known example is the tensor processing unit it builds with Alphabet's Google. ASICs can be tuned to run repetitive AI tasks more efficiently than general-purpose GPUs. Some investors think Nvidia's leadership turmoil could push its largest customers to diversify their suppliers.
That idea drove a rally on November 12. Broadcom climbed as much as 7.1% intraday and closed at $364.36. "AMD as a direct competitor, and Alphabet and Broadcom in the TPU space, are natural beneficiaries in the short term," said Anna Wu of Floodlines Research. Broadcom's AI semiconductor revenue reached $16.70 billion in its fiscal third quarter, up 221% from a year earlier, and the company forecast $21.70 billion for the fourth quarter.
The rally faded on Friday. Rothschild & Co downgraded Broadcom to Neutral from Buy and cut its price target to $398.00 from $595.00. Shares were down 4.88% at $346.57 as of 2:09 p.m. ET, more than wiping out Thursday's gain. That puts Broadcom's market value near $1.65 trillion and its P/E at about 44.26. The stock sits 29.99% below its 52-week high of $495.00 and 19.60% above its low of $289.77.
Among four recent ratings, the average target is $478.25, implying about 38.00% upside. Rosenblatt's $600.00 high target implies about 73.13%. Wolfe Research's Chris Caso offered a reason for caution about the rotation: "Nvidia sold out through the end of next year. The roadmap is set."
Cerebras Systems (NASDAQ: CBRS)
Cerebras builds wafer-scale AI chips and sells high-speed inference through its own cloud. It reported third-quarter results after the close on November 12, the same day Huang resigned. GAAP revenue rose 55% to $210.80 million. Core revenue, which excludes data-center pass-through costs, rose 70% to $230.90 million and beat LSEG's $214.70 million estimate. Core cloud revenue soared 272% to $144.90 million. Adjusted EPS was $0.12, against an expected loss of $0.14, and it was the company's first positive non-GAAP net income as a public company. On a GAAP basis, Cerebras still lost $161.22 million, or $0.67 per share.
The guidance stood out. Cerebras expects fourth-quarter core revenue of $310.00 million to $330.00 million, well above LSEG's $271.00 million estimate. It raised full-year 2026 core revenue guidance to $940.00 million to $960.00 million and reiterated plans to triple revenue in 2027. It also disclosed a cloud deal with Microsoft, its third hyperscaler customer after Amazon Web Services and Oracle. "We believe revenue begins to show up in Q1 '27," CEO Andrew Feldman said. He added that "long lead times in GPUs and more expense creates opportunity for us."
Shares were up 11.94% at $109.42 as of 2:09 p.m. ET, against a prior close of $97.75. That gives Cerebras a market value near $24.79 billion. The stock has been volatile since its May IPO. It is 71.68% below its 52-week high of $386.34 and 40.57% above its low of $77.84.
Analysts remain bullish but have been cutting targets. Mizuho lowered its target to $240.00 from $300.00, Needham to $200.00 from $300.00 and UBS to $155.00 from $250.00. The average of five current targets is $192.60, implying about 76.02% upside. The $240.00 high target implies roughly 119.34%. Customer concentration is a key risk: based on Cerebras' 10-Q, three customers accounted for about 79% of third-quarter revenue.
What to Watch
Nvidia reports third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, November 17, 2026, Kress's first report as interim CEO. Analysts expect EPS of $2.47 on revenue of about $109.00 billion. Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott has requested Huang's testimony on December 3. The Fed meets December 8–9.
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