Chip Stocks Lose Eight Days in a Row. Jensen Huang Tells the Chart It's Just a Phase

Somewhere in a New York trading office, a line on a screen has been pointing down for eight days, and it would like to speak to a manager.

Here are the real facts. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index, the market’s main gauge of chip companies, fell for an eighth straight session on Friday. Bloomberg reports that is its longest losing streak since 2008. The Nasdaq 100 had its worst week since the tariff turmoil of April 2025, and the S&P 500 fell 1.1% on the day.

The worry, Bloomberg says, is whether the giant build-out of AI infrastructure has outrun the ability of companies to make a return on it. Higher interest rates make that harder: the 10-year US Treasury yield was above 5%, which makes borrowing for data centres more expensive.

Enter the calmest man in Berlin

Then came Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, the biggest seller of AI chips. Speaking to Bloomberg’s Emily Chang at an event in Berlin, he was not worried.

“All of this is going to pass, and the reason for that is very simple,” Huang said. “It’s going to be transformative. It’s going to impact in a very positive way every single industry and every single country.” He called the recent headlines “choppy news” that “won’t change the fundamentals”, and told investors to “stay focused on first principles”.

The chart responds

We reached the Semiconductor Index for comment. We did not, because it is an index, but we imagine it said this:

“I have heard ‘this will pass’ before. I heard it in 2008. Then I fell for a while longer. I am not saying Jensen is wrong. I am saying I would like him to say it more slowly.”

Our imaginary index then asked whether “first principles” had a share price, and was told it does not. It said that explained a lot.

Is the market panicking or thinking?

Fawad Razaqzada of StoneX told Bloomberg the debate is shifting. “The question is no longer simply how large the AI opportunity can become, but how profitable the enormous investment required to realise it will ultimately be.” That is a calmer question than “is AI real?” and arguably a healthier one.

Demand for chips and computing power is still strong, the reports note. What investors want now is proof that the hundreds of billions going into data centres, power and networks will earn their keep. Some of that nervousness is showing up in credit markets, where the cost of financing the build-out has risen fast.

The takeaway

Huang may well be right that the technology will keep spreading. History says booms can go on to change the world and still give their early investors a rough ride. Both things can be true, which is the least comforting thing a chart can hear.

Satire: the index’s quotes are invented. Market moves and Huang’s quotes are real and reported by Bloomberg via the outlets below. Nothing here is investment advice.