Nvidia executives are cashing in on their shares, meaning it isn't just investors that are reaping the rewards of its soaring stock value.

The California-based GPU giant saw its market capitalization swell to $3.012 trillion last week, putting it briefly ahead of Apple and second only to Microsoft as the world's most valuable company.

The AI boom has seen Nvidia's stock price jump 144 percent so far during 2024 and by 211 percent over the last 12 months. According to investor site Barron's, a number of Nvidia executives are taking advantage of this to sell off some of their shares.

Citing a late May regulatory filing from Nvidia, it says that the company's rock star CEO, Jensen Huang, opted to sell up to 600,000 shares, said to be worth an estimated $650 million.

He isn't the only one. CFO Colette Kress, EVP of operations Debora Shoquist, and EVP of worldwide field operations Ajay Puri are likewise selling off some of Nvidia's stock.

These moves by Nvidia executives came ahead of a 10-for-1 split in Nvidia stock that took effect after the markets closed in the US last week. MarketWatch reports that the value of company shares was down in early trading, and analysts are expecting the split to boost Nvidia's stock in future.

It is also possible that Nvidia's execs saw an opportunity to cash in while the company's share price is riding at record highs.

Although the GPU maker reported record revenue of $26 billion for its fiscal Q1 2025, which ended April, Nvidia is not expected to keep up this pace of growth, which could see some investors lose interest.

Last week, The Register reported that some stockholders are already betting against Nvidia in the belief that its share price will soon fall.

Financial services outfit Morningstar expects Nvidia to grow revenue by an incremental $3 billion or so per quarter through the current fiscal year, and to keep growing quarter by quarter in fiscal 2026, after which "we model low-teens revenue growth in datacenter each year after that."

Meanwhile, AMD shares were down in early trading today after Morgan Stanley downgraded the company because it thinks investor expectations for its AI business are too high.

"We continue to see AMD as increasingly well positioned in their core markets, but persistently high AI expectations make us more cautious on their ability to justify a premium multiple," the analysts wrote.

However, Morgan Stanley also noted that unlike custom silicon alternatives, AMD with its GPU products could replicate Nvidia's capability of being in multiple clouds and giving cloud provider customers the ability to avoid vendor lock-in. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/06/10/nvidia_execs_sell_shares/