Nvidia CEO calls $1.3T chip selloff a buying opportunity

Nvidia's Jensen Huang told investors the $1.3 trillion semiconductor selloff is a chance to buy AI stocks at a discount.

Nvidia's Jensen Huang urged investors to look past the $1.3 trillion semiconductor selloff, calling it a buying opportunity as the artificial intelligence buildout enters its earliest stages.

"We are at the outset of the AI revolution," Huang told reporters in Seoul on June 8. "Whatever happened to the stock market, you should be very happy because now you can buy at a discount."

The selloff erased roughly $1.3 trillion from US semiconductor stocks on Friday after Broadcom's tepid outlook and stronger-than-expected US jobs data stoked fears the Federal Reserve could keep interest rates elevated. South Korea's KOSPI fell 8.3% on Monday, with SK Hynix dropping 7.7% and Samsung Electronics sliding 10.2%, even as Nvidia and SK Hynix announced a multi-year partnership to develop next-generation HBM4 memory chips for Nvidia's Vera Rubin AI platform.

Huang described AI as a "foregone conclusion" as global infrastructure, comparable to the internet. The question for investors is whether the selloff represents a healthy correction in a frothy sector or the beginning of a deeper downturn as macroeconomic headwinds collide with AI-driven optimism.

The selloff was concentrated in the stocks that had powered much of the AI rally. Broadcom fell 20% from its June 3 close after issuing projections that missed market expectations, while Marvell Technology dropped 17% on Friday — its worst single-day decline since August — after Huang had called the company the next "trillion-dollar" chipmaker. Nvidia shares, which had fallen during the broader rout, recovered 1.7% to $208.59 on Monday as Huang's comments helped stabilize sentiment.

The KOSPI had roughly doubled over the prior six months as SK Hynix and Samsung rode surging demand for high-bandwidth memory used in AI data centers. SK Hynix had crossed a $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time before Monday's selloff cut into those gains. The index's 8.3% drop on Monday was its steepest single-day decline in recent memory, driven by a rotation away from AI-linked names.

Huang's visit to Seoul included a meeting with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, where the two companies formalized a multi-year technology partnership covering memory supply for Nvidia's Vera Rubin supercomputers, Vera CPUs, RTX Spark-powered PCs, and Jetson Thor robotic platforms. Nvidia already procures "billions and billions of dollars each year" from SK Hynix, Huang said, and the new agreement runs more than two years with extension options.

For investors, the selloff tests a central question of the AI trade: whether the infrastructure buildout can sustain the valuations that semiconductor stocks have commanded. Nvidia trades at roughly 35 times forward earnings, while Broadcom's pullback has pushed its multiple lower. Huang's message is unambiguous — the AI infrastructure cycle is measured in years, not weeks — but the Fed's next move, and the next round of hyperscaler capital expenditure data, will determine whether the dip buyers or the macro bears have the stronger hand.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.