Nvidia's market value evaporated by 278.9 billion dollars overnight as the US Department of Justice escalated its antitrust investigation

On September 3 local time, the share price of Nvidia, the leading AI chip company, plunged 9.53% to 108 dollars per share. Its total market value evaporated by 278.9 billion dollars, setting a new record for the one-day market value evaporation of US stock companies. In addition to the influence of market sentiment, it is reported that Nvidia received a subpoena from the US Department of Justice. As part of the antitrust investigation, the after-hours share price further dropped by more than 2%.

On that day, the constituent stocks of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index all fell by more than 5%. The Nasdaq 100 Index and the S&P 500 Index declined, and the information technology sector plunged. After the opening of the Japanese and South Korean stock markets on the 4th, they fell sharply. SK Hynix, a major supplier of Nvidia, once plunged by more than 9%.

Since Nvidia released its financial report on August 29, its share price has fallen by about 14% in three trading days. Its revenue in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025 increased by 122% year-on-year, but the mass production of the latest chip Blackwell was postponed due to design defects. Analysts believe that Nvidia's financial report has triggered market concerns about the sustainability of huge investments in AI hardware. Investors hope to see technology companies obtain returns from their investments in AI and Nvidia to increase AI capital expenditures.

Although many investment banks have raised Nvidia's target price, some ***ysts have warned that the rationality of high valuations of AI has not been proven. Relevant people from JPMorgan Asset Management and BlackRock's think tank emphasized the need to wait patiently for AI to generate returns, which may take several years. Market strategist Paul Nolte pointed out that the return on investment in AI spending is questionable. At present, except for large technology companies buying from each other, the popularity of AI in the economy is not obvious.

At present, the Fed's interest rate cut path is unclear, and traders are waiting for the US non-farm payrolls report. At the same time, foreign media reported that the US Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to companies such as Nvidia as part of an antitrust investigation, asking whether they offer preferential treatment to customers who only use their products and investigating the acquisition of Run:ai. However, there are signs that technology companies' demand for Nvidia's AI chips remains strong. For example, Musk said that xAI's super AI training cluster Colossus is driven by 100,000 Nvidia H100 chips and will add 100,000 GPUs.