Key Takeaways
- Jensen Huang’s Nvidia exit adds leadership uncertainty ahead of the chipmaker’s Nov. 17 earnings.
- One onchain whale opened a $5.44 million leveraged Nvidia short before the resignation announcement.
- Substantial Anthropic shorts show that whales remain divided over AI valuations.
Jensen Huang’s shock departure from Nvidia has sharpened divisions across the artificial intelligence trade, with some onchain traders betting against the chipmaker. In contrast, others build bullish positions tied to Anthropic’s anticipated stock market debut.
Nvidia announced Huang’s resignation on Nov. 12, naming finance chief Colette Kress interim CEO.
The transition comes ahead of quarterly earnings and an Anthropic listing that could test investors’ appetite for AI exposure.
Nvidia Shorts Reflect Leadership Uncertainty
Huang stepped down as president, CEO, and director after 33 years leading the company he co-founded.
Nvidia appointed longtime director Harvey C. Jones as its first board chair and began searching for a permanent successor.
The company said Kress would retain her CFO responsibilities during the transition. Its board expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption.
Nevertheless, onchain traders had already started positioning for further turbulence.
Lookonchain flagged a trader who opened a leveraged Nvidia short on Hyperliquid, with exposure equivalent to 30,000 shares and a notional value of approximately $5.44 million. The position used 10 times leverage and surfaced before the resignation announcement.
That distinction matters: the trade reflected uncertainty surrounding Huang’s position, rather than a confirmed response to his eventual exit.
Anthropic Bulls Bet on the IPO
Across Anthropic-linked markets, other large traders have taken the opposite direction.
TradingBeats identified wallet 0x9a80 holding an approximately $14.92 million long position in io, a Hyperliquid contract tracking Anthropic’s implied valuation.
The trader used five times isolated leverage and entered at a level corresponding to roughly $1.98 trillion.
At the snapshot, the position carried an unrealized loss of approximately $1.4 million.
Another wallet, 0x33b7, opened a position of approximately $2.51 million in xyz at an average price of $93.65. The monitoring report put its unrealized profit near $270,000. These figures describe that observation, rather than current balances.
Reuters reported that Anthropic’s IPO could value the Claude developer at up to $1.4 trillion, with Nasdaq trading expected to begin Nov. 19.
Earnings and Listing Will Test the AI Trade
The contrasting bets expose two different risks within the same investment theme.
Nvidia faces an immediate leadership transition at a company closely associated with its founder. Anthropic faces the challenge of converting enthusiasm for its technology into sustained demand for publicly traded equity.
The dates bring those questions into focus. Nvidia will report third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Nov. 17, two days before Anthropic’s expected listing.
Nicolai Sondergaard, Senior Research Analyst at Nansen, told CCN:
“Equity markets are treating Huang’s exit seemingly as an Nvidia problem. Nvidia fell about 5% in early trading and its closest customers fell more: Supermicro and CoreWeave were each down about 8%. \
“Broadcom rose about 5% and AMD 2%, as investors bet on rivals winning share, and the broader chip index fell only about 1%.”
“That follows a month in which AI stocks had already de-rated, with Nvidia down 26% and Intel 38%. Investors had been questioning data center spending and how it is financed well before this week.”
For Sondergaard, “AI tokens are trading as high-beta crypto, and they are not tracking AI stocks. TAO, RENDER and VIRTUAL fell 7–9% over 24 hours. Given how they usually move against bitcoin, which fell about 4%, that is a normal day.”
The on-chain AI trade has moved to Hyperliquid’s tokenized stock and pre-IPO markets. Open interest in the Nvidia perp rose about sevenfold over the past week to over $600 million. Positioning is split there.
Next week, Nvidia’s earnings on Tuesday will show whether the large-wallet shorts or the dip buyers were right.
Anthropic’s first trade, expected Thursday, will show how close these contracts got to the public-market price.
Top Trending Crypto Articles
The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, nor should it be construed as, financial advice. We do not make any warranties regarding the completeness, reliability, or accuracy of this information. All investments involve risk, and past performance does not guarantee future results. We recommend consulting a financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
Giuseppe Ciccomascolo began his career as an investigative journalist in Italy, where he contributed to both local and national newspapers, focusing on various financial sectors.
Upon relocating to London, he worked as an analyst for Fitch's CapitalStructure and later as a Senior Reporter for Alliance News. In 2017, Giuseppe transitioned to covering cryptocurrency-related news, producing documentaries and articles on Bitcoin and other emerging digital currencies. He also played a pivotal role in establishing the academy for a cryptocurrency exchange website. Crypto remained his primary area of interest throughout his tenure as a writer for ThirdFloor.
