Nvidia’s Trillion-Dollar Market Value Shares Flash Crash, Falling Over 4.6% Intraday. What Is the Reason?

TradingKey - After surging the previous day, NVIDIA's stock price suddenly plummeted during intraday trading on May 15, falling more than 4.6% at one point as its market capitalization evaporated significantly.

Earlier during pre-market trading, foreign media reported that NVIDIA's H200 chip sales to China were unlikely to see a substantial breakthrough in the short term. Consequently, NVIDIA's stock price once dropped to around $230, a decline of over 3%, erasing approximately $170 billion (about 1.1 trillion RMB) in market value.

Meanwhile, Nasdaq 100 Index futures saw their decline widen to 1.78%, while S&P 500 Index futures fell 1.24%, as star tech stocks came under pressure across the board. In pre-market trading, Intel dropped over 5%, AMD fell over 4%, Micron Technology slid 4.5%, and TSMC, Qualcomm, and Tesla all declined by 2% to 3%.

Compounded by the renewed escalation of tensions between the U.S. and Iran, panic spread to the cryptocurrency and Asia-Pacific index futures markets. Global assets experienced a synchronized sell-off, with popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana all falling over 3%; spot gold dropped more than 3%, and spot silver once plunged over 9%.

The fuse for this sharp decline pointed to the high-profile NVIDIA chip trade incident.

On May 14, Eastern Time, the U.S. Department of Commerce had just approved about 10 Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance, to purchase NVIDIA H200 AI chips. The news briefly stimulated NVIDIA's stock price, driving it up by more than 4%.

Simultaneously, on May 15, Eastern Time, U.S. President Trump confirmed to reporters aboard Air Force One after his visit to China that China had not approved the receipt of H200 chips, stating, "They've chosen not to do that because they want to try and develop their own technology."

U.S. Trade Representative Greer also stated clearly that chip export controls were not a primary topic of these U.S.-China bilateral talks, suggesting that a substantial breakthrough in NVIDIA H200 chip sales to China remains unlikely in the short term.

Analysis suggests that the collective "zero orders" from Chinese companies despite holding procurement permits reflects China's determination to accelerate the localization of AI chips. It is estimated that NVIDIA's share of the Chinese AI chip market has plummeted from a peak of 95% to approximately 8%, while the market share of domestic AI chips surpassed 55% for the first time in the first quarter of 2026.

Although institutions such as Citi expect NVIDIA's upcoming first-quarter results for fiscal year 2026 to exceed expectations, with revenue potentially reaching $80 billion, market concerns regarding a high-valuation bubble continue to escalate.