Why Nvidia Stock Is Rising While the Broader Chip Sector Keeps Falling

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stepped in to reassure the market of CoreWeave debt fears. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)

Nvidia stock remained above water on Friday as the rest of the chip sector continued what has become one of its worst selloffs in more than a decade.

The stock was up less than 1% in premarket trading on Friday after a 1.8% fall on Thursday. The shares have lost 9% of their value since Oct.6.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) has fallen in all eight of the trading days since that date, its longest losing streak since September 2015. It looked set to extend the run to nine days, falling 0.4% ahead of the open. Advanced Mic

Declines have been exacerbated in recent days by rising fears around the mounting debt required to fund expansions in AI, especially at cloud computing name CoreWeave .

The Barron’s Daily

A morning briefing on what you need to know in the day ahead, including exclusive commentary from Barron’s and MarketWatch writers.

Email addressSubscribe

I agree to the Terms of Use, Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.

I would like to receive updates and special offers from Dow Jones and affiliates.

Nvidia stock climbed off its lows in Thursday trading as CEO Jensen Huang assuaged investors’ fears by saying that the company did not need to backstop CoreWeave—to which Nvidia is a supplier, customer, and investor.

The rebound looked to be building speed on Friday as Nvidia stock pushed into the green despite peers Advanced Micro Devices and Intel pointing lower.

So why is Nvidia stock rising while chip stocks are falling?

One factor could simply be that, after an extended period of declines, Nvidia—the world’s most valuable public company and darling stock of the AI trade in recent years—now looks a bit more attractive to investors, supported by technical market indicators.

In its recent slide, Nvidia stock price fell below both its 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs) on October 6, largely languishing below those traditional technical levels of support in the period since.

In Thursday trading, the stock fell to as low as $213, while the 50-day SMA sat at $220 and the 200-day SMA held at $224. After Huang’s remarks, that differential narrowed as the stock jumped within a few cents of the 50-day level—to $217.23 vs $217.37. If the rebound continues into Friday, the technical indicators will begin to turn even more bullish.

More fundamentally, it’s likely that Huang’s calming words have reassured investors who had fretted about Nvidia’s position relative to the widespread debt fears across AI.

That could be enough for Nvidia stock itself—but it remains to be seen if the Nvidia CEO can inspire enough confidence to spread across the chip sector and stop the widespread bleeding.

Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com

Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8