Top Stories This Morning: What Huang's Departure Means, Who Stands to Gain From It, and Demand for Anthropic's IPO

Jensen Huang’s ouster as CEO has revealed a shift in the balance of power in Silicon Valley—being a company’s founder is no longer enough to retain power, the WSJ reports. AMD and Broadcom have benefited from Nvidia’s troubles, with their stock prices surging this week. Microsoft faced one of the most widespread outages of its cloud services and office applications. Demand for Anthropic shares ahead of its IPO was roughly six times the supply. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of November 13.

Jensen Huang’s resignation as CEO of Nvidia signaled a waning of the founders’ influence at major tech companies, according to The Wall Street Journal. Despite support from Elon Musk, Y Combinator CEO Harry Tan, and other influential figures in Silicon Valley, Huang left the company amid a scandal surrounding his relationship with a woman suspected of spying for China. The WSJ notes that the status of company founder is no longer enough to retain power: In Silicon Valley, the role of bureaucracy, institutions, and traditional corporate norms—which tech billionaires have sought to shed for years, in part by counting on the support of the Donald Trump administration—is once again on the rise.

This situation is unfolding against the backdrop of increasing political pressure on the tech sector following the Democrats’ victory in the U.S. midterm elections. Lawmakers are calling for an investigation into potential national security threats related to Nvidia and are promising to tighten oversight of the AI industry. Huang’s departure also heightens concerns about a possible market correction in a sector that relies heavily on investments in AI infrastructure, the publication notes.

AMD’s stock rose 30% over the week, Broadcom’s rose 24%, and TSMC’s rose 11% following Jensen Huang’s resignation as CEO of Nvidia, according to CNBC. Nvidia’s stock, meanwhile, fell 11% over the same period. Investors are shifting their funds toward the company’s competitors, hoping that the management crisis will allow them to close the technology gap with the market leader in AI chips.

The rally also extended to manufacturers of analog chips, which investors view as less risky investments. Shares of Texas Instruments rose about 13%, Analog Devices 12%, and Germany’s Infineon 14%. Analysts note that TSMC, which manufactures Nvidia’s cutting-edge processors, stands to benefit regardless of which chip developer strengthens its market position.

Demand for shares in Anthropic, the developer of the Claude AI model, exceeded supply by about six times during its IPO, Bloomberg reports, citing sources. The company expects to raise up to $64.4 billion through the offering and an additional $26 billion through a private share sale. The total value of the deal could exceed that of SpaceX’s IPO and become the largest in history. When allocating shares, Anthropic intends to give priority to existing investors.

Anthropic expects a valuation of about $1.4 trillion, taking into account potential dilution, the agency notes. Nvidia plans to purchase $10 billion worth of the company’s shares as part of a private placement. Anthropic’s annual revenue rate as of October 31 reached $81 billion, up from $71 billion at the end of September. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are acting as underwriters for the IPO, and the shares are scheduled to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ANT.

Microsoft experienced one of its most serious technical outages in recent memory. On Thursday, for most of the workday in the U.S., Outlook, Teams, and the Copilot AI service were unavailable to some users. More than nine hours after the outage began, Microsoft was still working to restore access to its products—whereas previous outages rarely lasted longer than a few hours, according to Bloomberg.

In addition to the email client and messaging app, the outage affected tools for technical professionals—cybersecurity tools, file-sharing services, and administration systems. The outage also affected the office applications Word and Excel, which Microsoft sells as part of its M365 subscription. On social media platform X, the company warned that users in any region could experience issues. In after-hours trading, Microsoft shares fell 1%.

Nscale, a British cloud provider backed by Nvidia, has updated its filing for an IPO in the U.S. In the third quarter, the company’s revenue grew 1,344% year-over-year to $307.5 million, but its net loss widened to $1.69 billion from $1.02 billion in the second quarter, according to CNBC. Nscale plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange but has not yet disclosed the amount it intends to raise.

The company faced difficulties after Microsoft decided not to use its data center in the United Kingdom due to issues with access to electricity. In addition, Microsoft decided not to renew its contract with Nscale in Texas.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla are making progress in merger talks that could become the largest deal in history, Bloomberg reports, citing sources. The companies may announce the merger as early as December, although they are also considering postponing it until early 2027. Boards of directors and advisors are discussing the terms of the deal and the governance structure of the combined company.

SpaceX's market value following its IPO exceeds $1.9 trillion, while Tesla is valued at approximately $1.5 trillion. The merger will combine the production of electric vehicles, batteries, rockets, and satellites, as well as projects in the field of artificial intelligence, the agency notes. Among the main obstacles are regulatory restrictions related to SpaceX’s defense contracts in the U.S. and Tesla’s large-scale production in China.

Alice Huang, who is suspected of spying for China and of having a romantic relationship with former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, may have held stakes in Chinese companies that did business with Huawei, CNBC reports, citing an investigation by the private intelligence firm Tesari. Entities linked to her were involved in supplying computing power to Huawei, one of Nvidia’s main competitors in China.

In particular, Shanghai Hexi, of which Alice Huang was a co-owner, indirectly held a stake in a data center in Shenzhen that served Huawei Cloud. In addition, Megaspeed, a company affiliated with her, helped arrange the supply of Nvidia chips to Chinese companies worth at least $7.5 billion. Analysts at Tesari believe that the complex structure of corporate ties may have been used to conceal relationships with Huawei, and are calling for an investigation into possible violations of U.S. export controls.

U.S. networking equipment manufacturer Cisco exceeded analysts’ expectations for its first fiscal quarter and raised its revenue forecast for fiscal year 2027 from $72.2–73.4 billion to $74.8–75.8 billion, according to Reuters. The company anticipates steady demand for switches and routers for data centers that support artificial intelligence systems.

Cisco's quarterly revenue came in at $18.5 billion, compared with the expected $18.14 billion, and adjusted earnings per share were $1.40, compared with the forecast of $1.33. The company also raised its revenue forecast for AI infrastructure for major cloud providers from $7.5 billion to $9 billion. However, adjusted gross margin declined from 68.1% to 65.6% due to rising costs of memory and other components.

Cerebras, an American AI chip manufacturer, has raised its adjusted revenue forecast for 2026 from $880 million to $890 million to $940 million to $960 million and announced that it has signed a cloud contract with Microsoft, according to Reuters. Against this backdrop, the company’s stock rose more than 17% in after-hours trading. Details of the agreement with Microsoft are expected to be disclosed next year.

In the third quarter, Cerebras’ adjusted revenue rose 70% to $230.9 million, exceeding analysts’ forecast of $214.7 million. The company reported adjusted net income of $29.82 million, compared with a net loss of $10.86 million a year earlier. Revenue from the cloud and services division—which includes revenue from the OpenAI contract—more than tripled to $144.9 million.

— Japan's broad-based Topix index was virtually unchanged, while the Nikkei 225 fell 0.9%.

— Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1%, and mainland China's CSI 300 Index also fell 1%.

— In South Korea, the KOSPI index fell 1.3%, and the KOSDAQ index fell 2.5%.

— Australia's S&P/ASX 200 remained virtually unchanged.

— Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.1%, S&P 500 futures fell 0.5%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were virtually unchanged.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor