Despite the air of positivity surrounding President Donald Trump’s China summit, its contents caused several prominent American companies to suffer significant and swift stock market declines.
The world’s biggest semiconductor company, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) joined their ranks in the May 15 pre-market as the extended session trading led the equity to drop 3.07%, meaning the chipmaker is set to wipe $170 billion from its market capitalization by the morning bell.
Such a substantial drop was triggered by the revelation that, despite the clearance from the U.S. government, Chinese companies have so far refrained from ordering H200 chips, confirming CEO Jensen Huang’s previous remark that his firm’s market share in the People’s Republic has fallen to zero.
Throughout the semiconductor export restrictions saga, the East Asian country has repeatedly signalled its displeasure with the lack of access to the newest and most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) hardware, as well as its goal of developing domestic design and production capacity.
Why Nvidia just wiped $170 billion on news of no H200 sales to China
Elsewhere, the rapid investor reaction to the confirmation might serve as a demonstration of a wider unease toward the state of the U.S. stock market in May 2026.
Indeed, shareholders have already, on multiple occasions, reacted with significant selling activity even to relatively minor adverse developments related to big tech.
Notably, the revelation that OpenAI missed its own internal targets in 2025 led the benchmark S&P 500 stock market index to halt an ongoing rally and contract approximately 0.50% by April 29. Considering the index has a total market capitalization of nearly $70 trillion, the move represents a loss of approximately $350 billion.
Investors remain keen on ‘AI boom’ but fearful of an ‘AI bubble’
Overall, despite the persistent bull market, allegations of circular financing between some of the biggest technology giants and private AI companies, the dependence of firms like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) on only one customer – OpenAI in most cases – perpetually moving goalposts, and a lack of progress and communication regarding infrastructure buildouts have all contributed to the market sensitivity.
Despite its staggering success since 2022, Nvidia is especially vulnerable given its valuation has exploded well above $5.5 trillion at a time when confirmed data center completions hint at a substantial overselling of GPUs.
Indeed, some critics, such as Ed Zitron, have speculated that as much as two-thirds of all Blackwells sold might remain unused and ‘gathering dust’, raising questions about the long-term sustainability of Nvidia’s growth.
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