View / The end of the ‘Nvidia put’ that powers the AI ecosystem - Semafor

Jensen Huang is out, and with him goes the “Nvidia put” that has underpinned the entire AI ecosystem.

Huang, who resigned from his post Thursday, was the AI world’s central bank chairman and human security blanket, always there with a checkbook to backstop, acquire, hire, invest in, or otherwise underwrite the least underwritable corners of AI. That “put” — finance speak for a guaranteed buyer on the other side of a trade — has kept the AI financing and fundraising markets lubricated, even as it invited criticism of their circularity. It’s also helped prop up the stock market and padded 401(k)s for the last couple of years. Nvidia guarantees more than $100 billion of data-center leases, owns $51 billion worth of stock in privately held companies, and another $63 billion in listed ones. Its balance sheet was a sponge that absorbed the market’s growing AI fears and put a floor under deal prices.

Whoever replaces him will face much higher stakes, akin to Tim Cook after Steve Jobs at Apple. They’ll also be on a tighter leash from a board of directors I suspect will get a much-needed refresh by the time this saga is over. (It’s hard to imagine the former president of Taco Bell or the former chief marketing officer of the NFL probing Huang too deeply on off-balance-sheet lease guarantees for next-generation data centers.) Not only will that change the fabric of one of the world’s most valuable companies, but it will also push up the price of AI debt and equity — making the AI buildout more expensive for everyone — by taking a huge buyer off the table.