Shares of AMD and Broadcom rose in Thursday premarket trading after multiple reports that Nvidia's board of directors is preparing to remove CEO Jensen Huang. Nvidia (NVDA) shares fell more than 6% over the same period.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the board met as soon as Wednesday evening to decide Huang's fate, citing people familiar with the matter. A source told Reuters that the meeting took place that night, but no official outcome or board statement had been confirmed. The reports did not indicate whether the board had settled on a successor. Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment from Barron's early Thursday. With no official word from the company, the market was moving on press reports alone, and any statement from Nvidia or its board would be the first official confirmation of Huang's status.

What the Reports Say

Huang told staff in a letter on Sunday that he had been unfaithful to his wife. He apologized for breaking the trust of his family and employees. According to Investing.com, the affair involved an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data company and major Nvidia customer.

The Wall Street Journal also reported a second affair, citing a person familiar with the matter. That report involves Kimberly Powell, who runs Nvidia's healthcare business, and The New York Times first reported it.

Huang is a central figure in the global chip industry. He co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has served as its chief executive for more than three decades, building the company from a PC graphics chipmaker into a cornerstone of AI computing. He meets regularly with top U.S. and Chinese officials and is often greeted by fans in Taiwan, where he was born. Nvidia is a major supplier of the chips used in artificial intelligence, and reports about its leadership have drawn attention across the AI sector.

How Shares Moved

By 5:57 a.m. ET, AMD was up 3.6% and Broadcom was up 2.5% in premarket trading, while Nvidia was down more than 6%. The moves point to investors betting that turmoil at Nvidia could help its closest competitors in the market for AI chips.

Later in premarket trading, Nvidia was near $160.91, down 7.38% from Wednesday's close of $173.73, extending its early losses. Barron's reported that the news took a dent out of Wednesday's tech rally, which had lifted tech stocks broadly; AMD and Broadcom stood out as exceptions among tech names, up 3.5% and 2% ahead of the open, respectively.

Both stocks were already having a strong week. AMD had risen 23% and Broadcom 18% through Wednesday's close. Barron's said the moves may suggest that Huang's possible exit would not necessarily crush the AI boom, even as the reports have been hitting AI stocks more broadly.

Analyst Response

Wall Street analysts moved quickly to reassess the competitive landscape. William Blair analyst Sebastien Naji upgraded AMD to Outperform on Thursday, citing Nvidia's leadership issues and Intel's supply challenges as reasons AMD can keep gaining share. Naji expects AMD to deliver “best-in-class growth,” Barron's reported. The upgrade came amid a strong run for AMD shares this week.

William Blair's analysts also said Nvidia faces more scrutiny and a possible leadership vacuum, describing a growing leadership and regulatory imbroglio at the company. They noted that competition from custom ASIC chips remains a risk to AMD's Instinct line, while also seeing a chance for AMD to benefit from custom programs.

AMD's graphics chip plans compete directly with Nvidia's data center accelerators, and cloud providers have looked more closely at AMD's custom designs as an alternative to Nvidia's standard GPUs. Broadcom, which designs custom AI chips for large cloud operators, sits in that same alternative-supplier landscape.

Pepperstone analyst Chris Weston said the market appears to be separating a problem for Nvidia from a problem for AI. He said the price action suggests investors view the turmoil mainly as a risk specific to Nvidia, calling it “an important distinction for the broader technology trade.”

This article draws on reporting from The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Barron's, The New York Times, and Investing.com. It originally appeared on CoinCentral.