Nov 12 (Reuters) - Futures tracking the Nasdaq 100 led Wall Street lower on Thursday after Nvidia shares plunged on reports that its board was weighing the ouster of CEO Jensen Huang, rattling AI-linked stocks.
The AI heavyweight dropped 7% in premarket trading following reports involving two extramarital affairs by its longtime leader.
Nvidia's central role in the AI boom has tied much of the industry's fortunes to the chipmaker, leaving investors wary of the potential fallout from any leadership change.
"The controversy creates an unusually difficult problem for investors, who have spent years concentrating capital in companies considered indispensable to the AI economy," said Terri-Leigh Bennett, chief operating officer at CMS Prime.
At 4:11 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 20 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 E-minis fell 29.25 points, or 0.38%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis dropped 226.25 points, or 0.79%.
Chipmakers Intel, Marvell Technology and Micron fell between 2.6% and 3.4%, while AI infrastructure firms CoreWeave and Nebius dropped 7.2% and 4.7%, respectively.
The declines threatened to erase Wednesday's gains, when strong results from CoreWeave helped AI stocks regain some footing. Among the Magnificent Seven, Tesla slipped 0.8% while Alphabet gained 0.5%.
The sharp swings underscore a tug of war over the AI trade. Concerns about a slowdown in data-center development have intensified following Democrats' midterm election gains, though some investors see the recent pullback as a buying opportunity.
"It's a great time to be an AI company. You definitely have a lot of contagion that happens with retail investors and algorithmic trading, but we don't see capital expenditure on AI slowing down," Strategy Asset Managers CEO Tom Hulick said.
"The correction in the Nasdaq could quite possibly be an opportunity to enter some of the names without the froth."
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)