Retail Investors Poured $111 Million Into Nvidia in 30 Minutes. Why Did the Stock Still Fall?

Nvidia shares fell as much as 14% in early US trading on November 12 after the chipmaker announced that co-founder Jensen Huang had resigned and finance chief Colette Kress would take over as interim CEO. Individual investors bought an estimated $111 million more in Nvidia shares than they sold in the first half-hour, according to Vanda Research. By the 4 p.m. New York close, the stock had recovered much of its early loss. It finished at $166.19, down $7.54 from the previous close.

How can record buying and a falling share price happen at the same time?

The record covers one group of buyers and one short stretch of trading. The 4.34% fall compares the price at Thursday’s close with the price at Wednesday’s close. Both figures can be true because investors can buy heavily at prices well below where the stock last closed.

Say a stock closes at $100 on Wednesday. The next morning, sellers accept $86. Buyers pile in and the price climbs to $96 by the end of the day. That is a $10 recovery from the low and a $4 loss from the previous close. Nvidia’s Thursday followed that broad pattern. Each completed trade has a buyer and a seller. The price reflects where they agree to trade.

What exactly did Vanda count?

Vanda estimated net retail buying. It took the dollar value of Nvidia shares bought by individual investors in the opening half-hour and subtracted the value of shares they sold. The result was about $111 million, more than 40 times the usual opening flow for Nvidia and the biggest opening half-hour Vanda had recorded for the stock. The figure measures the balance of retail buying in that window. The money for the shares went to the investors selling them.

Who was selling?

The public figures cited here do not identify the sellers behind those trades. Pension funds, hedge funds and other institutions also trade Nvidia, as do individual investors. Vanda’s estimate shows that the retail group it tracks bought more than it sold in that half-hour. It gives no breakdown of the investors who traded on the other side or who drove the rest of the session.

Did the $111 million help Nvidia recover?

The timing makes that plausible. The buying burst came in the opening half-hour, when Nvidia was trading well below its previous close. But we have no way to calculate where the price would have ended up without it. Other investors were trading throughout the day, and the $111 million covers only the first 30 minutes.

Fidelity offers a second glimpse of the rush. By noon New York time, its customers had placed about 395,000 Nvidia buy orders and 80,000 sell orders, nearly five buys for every sell. An order for one share counts the same as an order for a hundred in that tally. The count captures interest at one brokerage.

Have individual investors done this before?

Yes. On January 27, 2025, Nvidia fell about 17% as investors weighed whether Chinese startup DeepSeek’s low-cost AI model might change how much computing power companies needed. Retail investors bought a net $562.2 million of Nvidia shares that day, according to Vanda data reported by Reuters. That was a full session. Thursday’s record was for the opening half-hour. In both cases, retail investors bought heavily and Nvidia finished lower.

Why did Huang’s departure matter to the price?

Huang helped build Nvidia into a major supplier of AI chips and led the company for 33 years. His departure leaves investors with a new question about who will run the business while they are already trying to gauge how long the AI spending boom can last. Nvidia’s board said it expects customer commitments and product plans to continue without interruption and has started looking for a permanent chief executive. Investors will get their first scheduled look at the business under Kress on the earnings call.

Can Indian investors feel the drop without owning Nvidia directly?

Yes. Nvidia made up 8.02% of the Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 ETF’s net assets as of October 31, its second-largest holding after Apple. An Indian investor who owns the fund has indirect exposure to Nvidia. At that weight, a 4.34% fall in Nvidia alone would shave about 0.35 percentage points off the value of the fund’s holdings, if all other prices and the exchange rate held steady. The actual fund return also reflects its other holdings and the dollar’s move against the rupee.

What can Colette Kress tell investors on November 17?

Nvidia had forecast quarterly revenue of about $108 billion in August, assuming zero sales of data-centre computing products in China. The actual results will show how the company performed through October 25, before Huang’s departure. Kress’s outlook can tell investors more about the months ahead, including how quickly Nvidia expects to sell its next generation of chips. Results are due around 2:50 a.m. IST on November 18, followed by the call at 3:30 a.m. IST.