Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) stock fell 2.78% in intraday trading on Wednesday, September 17, after reports that China imposed a ban on the company’s chips sparked immediate market reaction.
At the time of writing, NVDA shares trade at $170.51, roughly 7.5% below their 52-week high, while Nvidia’s massive float of 23.3 billion shares and tiny short interest of just 0.84% make for a limited squeeze relief.
Further, the stock’s average true range (ATR) sits at 4.65, though its relative volume (RVOL) is subdued at 0.53, indicating that selling momentum has yet to accelerate in a meaningful way despite the price drop.
The tech war keeps escalating
CEO Jensen Huang said he was “disappointed but patient” in the wake of first reports that the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) had instructed major firms, including titans like Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), not to purchase Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D chips designed specifically for the Chinese market.
“We can only be in service of a market if the country wants us to be. For 30 years, we probably contributed more to the China market than most companies have. But they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States, and we’re patient,” Huang told City A.M, speaking from London on Wednesday.
The chipmaker’s relations with China have been complicated for a while. For instance, the company already excludes China from its financial forecasts, citing uncertainty tied to ongoing U.S.-China tech negotiations.
Washington itself has already restricted Nvidia’s artificial intelligence (AI) chip exports, including the H20 server chip, on national security grounds. Later, the White House announced in August that a new export license would come at the cost of a 15% share in H20 sales in China.
Earlier this week, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) launched an antitrust probe into Nvidia’s $6.9 billion acquisition of Mellanox. Beijing also reportedly pressured the American company to halt production over security concerns, but the CEO denied the chips have “any security backdoors.”
Huang is currently accompanying President Trump on a state visit to the U.K., where Nvidia unveiled a £11 billion ($15 billion) investment in British AI infrastructure. Accordingly, market watchers are patiently waiting to see how the European moves might also affect the stock.
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