BERLIN, GERMANY – OCTOBER 19: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pictured at the Invest in Germany Summit 2026 event on October 19, 2026 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo credit: Thomas Koehler/Photothek via Getty Images)
Thomas Köhler | Phototech | Getty Images
Nvidia shares fell sharply in early trading Thursday after Jensen Huang resigned as CEO. Mr. Huang co-founded the chipmaker 33 years ago and built it into a behemoth at the center of the artificial intelligence boom.
Since then Nvidia is one of the largest publicly traded companies by market capitalization, and its stock defaults to substantial holdings in several popular mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.
Therefore, many investors who have this chipmaker’s stock in their portfolios may be concerned about their exposure.
However, the data shows that mutual fund and ETF investors’ exposure to Nvidia stock is likely to be relatively low, and large changes in stock prices are likely to have a fairly modest impact on investors’ portfolios, financial advisors said.
“This is a very modern and sensational risk story,” said Philip Chao, a certified financial planner and chief investment officer at Cabin John, Maryland-based Experiential Wealth. “But that’s part of investing in stocks.”
Nvidia’s stock price fell more than 10% early Thursday following news of Hwang’s resignation.
Huang resigned following reports that he admitted to having an affair with Alice Huang, a woman who U.S. intelligence officials believe was a Chinese spy, and that he had another affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reports to him. Reuters reported on Thursday that Huang had a “close relationship” with a second Nvidia employee, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The stock has since pared some of those losses, falling more than 5% as of around 2:50 p.m. ET.
But investors “don’t need to worry” about their exposure, Chao said.
For example, if Nvidia makes up 5% of the fund’s overall holdings and its stock price drops 10%, the fund’s value would fall 0.5%, all else being equal, Chao said.
“It’s no big deal,” he said. “Most people are just reacting to the sensational aspects of this (news).”
A flash poll conducted Thursday among CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council and Financial Advisor 100 members found that 18 respondents plan to keep NVIDIA’s allocation in client portfolios stable. Three companies have increased their stakes, and six companies do not own the chipmaker. None of the respondents are reducing their ownership. The online poll was conducted Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET and was sent to 122 companies, with 27 responding.
Nvidia’s impact on popular ETFs
For a concrete example of why investors are likely limiting their exposure, let’s take a look at some of the most popular stock ETFs.
1. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
Nvidia stock is the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF’s largest holding (VOO).
As the name suggests, the fund tracks the performance of the S&P 500 U.S. stock index, which had a market capitalization of $1.7 trillion as of Sept. 30, according to the latest data from Vanguard.
On that day, Nvidia stock accounted for about 8.4% of the total portfolio.
Assuming this weighting were carried forward to today, a 5% decline in Nvidia stock would only cause the fund to lose about 0.42% of its value, all else being equal, according to an analysis by CNBC’s Experiential Wealth.
According to our analysis, a 10% decline would cause the fund to decline by 0.84%.
2. Invesco QQQ Trust
Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) is an ETF that tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100 index, which is heavily weighted in tech stocks.
The fund held about $473.8 billion as of Nov. 10, according to Invesco data.
Nvidia was the second largest holding, accounting for 6.8% of the total portfolio. Apple ranked first with about 8.4%.
Based on its weighting, the fund would lose just 0.34% of its value if NVIDIA’s stock price fell 5%, all else being equal, according to Experiential Wealth’s analysis. Nvidia’s 10% loss equates to a 0.68% loss for the entire fund.
3. Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF
Nvidia stock was the Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF’s largest holding (VTI).
The fund had $1.8 trillion outstanding as of Oct. 31, according to Vanguard.
As of September 30, NVIDIA stock accounted for approximately 7.13% of the fund.
Based on this weighting, a 5% decline in Nvidia’s stock price, all else being equal, would mean the entire fund would lose about 0.36% of its value, according to Experiential Wealth’s analysis. Nvidia’s 10% loss equates to a total fund loss of approximately 0.71%.
“There’s a difference between (stock price) volatility and a significant loss that you can’t recover from,” Chao said.
According to him, Nvidia’s stock is in the former camp, not the latter.
Average Nvidia exposure across all mutual funds and ETFs
Of all mutual funds and ETFs, “massive growth” funds have the highest average weightings in Nvidia stocks, according to Morningstar data. These are funds that tend to hold large, fast-growing U.S. stocks by market capitalization.
As of Wednesday, large-cap growth funds had an average weight of 10.34% in Nvidia stock, according to Morningstar. We found that funds focused on the technology sector had the second-largest exposure to stocks, with an average weighting of 7.31%.
Of course, NVIDIA stock doesn’t exist in a vacuum, financial experts say.
“If Nvidia goes down 10%, you’ll usually see other semiconductor and AI-related names go down, like AMD and Micron,” Chao said.
And that means losses for mutual funds and ETFs could be larger than NVIDIA’s holdings suggest, he said.
“This event could add further pressure to the already inflated valuations of AI stocks,” Renee Friedman, head of global research at brokerage EXANTE, said in an email.
But experts say that’s not a foregone conclusion.
S&P 500 index and Nasdaq CompositeFor example, as of around 2:50 PM ET, there was a slight decline for the day.
—CNBC’s Sharon Epperson contributed reporting.
