Shares of Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices rose in after-hours trading Wednesday, even as Nvidia plunged, as investors shifted toward rival chipmakers following reports that Nvidia’s board was considering the future of CEO Jensen Huang.

Broadcom shares gained more than 2%, while AMD also advanced more than 4%. Nvidia, by contrast, fell about 9% in after-hours trading.

The divergence highlights how uncertainty surrounding Nvidia’s leadership is creating opportunities for other major players in the AI chip industry. With investors reassessing their exposure to Nvidia, Broadcom and AMD are emerging as potential alternatives, supported by their respective positions in custom AI chips, data center processors and AI infrastructure.

AMD Offers an Alternative to Nvidia in Data Center GPUs

AMD is one of Nvidia’s most direct competitors in the AI accelerator market. Its Instinct series of GPUs is designed for data center workloads, including AI training and inference.

As companies continue investing in AI computing capacity, demand for alternatives to Nvidia’s products could benefit AMD. Large cloud providers and enterprise customers have been looking to diversify their chip supply, partly to reduce dependence on a single supplier.

Leadership uncertainty at Nvidia may further encourage investors to consider AMD as an alternative way to gain exposure to the AI computing market.

Broadcom Benefits From Demand for Custom AI Chips

Broadcom has a different competitive position. Rather than relying primarily on general-purpose GPUs, the company develops custom AI accelerators, known as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), for major technology companies.

These chips are designed for specific AI workloads and can offer advantages in power efficiency and performance for certain applications. Broadcom also supplies networking components that connect processors and servers across large-scale data centers.

As technology companies expand their AI infrastructure, demand for custom accelerators and high-speed networking equipment has become an increasingly important part of the AI investment theme.

This gives Broadcom exposure to AI infrastructure spending without relying entirely on Nvidia’s GPU business. Its custom-chip business may also benefit as major cloud providers seek to develop their own AI processors.

Nvidia Faces Leadership Uncertainty

The gains in AMD and Broadcom came as Nvidia faced mounting uncertainty over Huang’s position.

Reports that Nvidia’s board was considering Huang’s future followed allegations involving multiple extramarital relationships, including one with a data center executive at a Singapore-based company who has been accused of having ties to Chinese intelligence.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia’s board was preparing to discuss Huang’s future, while other reports raised questions about additional alleged relationships.

Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has served as its CEO ever since. Under his leadership, Nvidia became the dominant supplier of AI chips and one of the world's most valuable companies.

The possibility of his departure has raised questions about the company's leadership continuity at a time when investors are already assessing the sustainability of massive AI infrastructure spending.

For AMD and Broadcom, Wednesday's market reaction suggests that investors may be looking beyond Nvidia for exposure to the next phase of AI growth. However, whether the gains develop into a sustained rotation will depend on their ability to capture more AI chip demand and deliver continued earnings growth.