AI in action · Markets
AMD Up 13%, Nvidia Down 4%: The AI Trade Splits
AMD closed 13.26% higher at $508.58 on November 9 after an upgrade and a Google Cloud chip win, while Nvidia fell 4.27% as its board investigated its CEO.
Monday's rebound from last week's AI rout was broad: the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.74% to 25,253 and the S&P 500 more than 2%, with chip stocks among the leaders. The two best-known AI chip designers still went in opposite directions, and the gap between them, about 17.5 percentage points in a single session, says more about the day than the index moves do.
AMD rose 13.26% to $508.58 on about 51 million shares, more than twice its three-month average volume. Two pieces of news drove it. Oppenheimer analyst Rick Schafer upgraded the stock to Outperform with a $600 target, about 18% above Monday's close. And AMD said its fifth-generation EPYC processors are the host processors for Google Cloud's TPU 8tx systems, providing "hardware-enforced confidential computing". The close was above the $488.78 at which AMD stood before Thursday's 17% fall, after which chief executive Lisa Su had said the market "can sometimes be a little bit short-sighted".
Nvidia fell 4.27% to $178.67, after losing about 8% early in the session, on roughly 455 million shares, about 3.7 times its three-month average. Its board had opened an independent investigation after reports that chief executive Jensen Huang was the target of a suspected Chinese intelligence operation; the company said it had no reason to believe sensitive information was compromised. Analysts described the problem as key-person risk, which is specific to one company rather than a verdict on AI demand. Broadcom rose 8.78% and Intel 5.49% on the same day.
The Google detail is the more durable of AMD's two catalysts. TPUs are Google's own AI accelerators, an alternative to Nvidia's GPUs inside Google Cloud, and AMD's chips now sit in those systems as the host processor. AMD's data-centre revenue rose 97% from a year earlier in its third quarter, and the company has guided to 80% revenue growth next year, the numbers the upgrade leans on.
One session does not make a rotation. Nvidia reports on November 17 and the board's investigation has no published timetable, while AMD has now erased a 17% fall in two sessions, which leaves less room for good news to surprise. For investors holding both, Monday was a reminder that "AI chips" is not one trade: governance, customers and valuation can pull the two apart on the same day.
Sources: The Motley Fool — Stock Market Today, Nov. 9: AMD Jumps on Oppenheimer Upgrade and Google Cloud Chip Selection (Nov 9, 2026); The Motley Fool — Stock Market Today, Nov. 9: Nvidia Stock Plunges 4% on Jensen Huang Investigation as Nasdaq Surges Nearly 3% (Nov 9, 2026); 24/7 Wall St. — Lisa Su Called the Market 'Short-Sighted' as AMD Crashed 17%. Two Sessions Later the Stock Has It All Back (Nov 9, 2026)