TechFlow Briefing: NVIDIA Board Prepares to Oust Jensen Huang, Stock Plunges 9% After Hours; MSCI Removes Strategy from Index, Potentially Triggering $8.8 Billion in Sell-Offs

AI / Large Models

NVIDIA Board Prepares to Oust Jensen Huang, Stock Drops Nearly 9% After Hours

The Wall Street Journal reports the board will meet as early as Nov 11 to decide on Jensen Huang's fate, sparked by his extramarital affairs with two women, one of whom is suspected by US intelligence agencies of being a Chinese spy. Bernstein immediately downgraded its rating, cutting its price target in half to $200.

Hot Take: What the community cares about most isn't the gossip itself, but whether the valuation logic for "NVIDIA without Jensen Huang" holds up—some point to Apple's past script of ousting Jobs, while others argue NVIDIA's CUDA moat has little to do with the CEO personally.

Sources: The Wall Street Journal | CNBC | Wu Blockchain

Trump Administration Aware of NVIDIA CEO Ouster Plan, FBI Steps In for Investigation

CBS reports the White House is already aware of the board's moves, and the FBI is investigating Huang's connections to personnel suspected of holding Chinese assets. Reuters adds that Senate Democrats are demanding the retention of all NVIDIA's chip export documentation related to China.

Sources: CBS News | Reuters

Google Releases Gemini Decisions API

This product bundles decision-making capabilities into a standalone API, allowing developers to invoke models for structured judgment rather than pure text generation. HN discussion is heated, with the core focus on whether enterprise-grade decision automation can truly replace manual approval processes.

Sources: Google | Hacker News

Baidu Releases Ernie Bot 5.5 Flash Preview, Opens Million-Token Context

The million-token context API directly benchmarks against top overseas models, with Flash targeting a cost-performance strategy. This marks a direct challenge from domestic large models in context length capability.

Sources: IT Home

Crypto / Web3

MSCI Removes Strategy and Metaplanet from Global Indices, Potential Outflow of $8.8 Billion

MSCI deems the two Bitcoin-holding companies "more like investment funds than operating businesses," effective Dec 1. Strategy had previously warned of potential stock sell-offs totaling around $2.8 billion, and JPMorgan estimates that if other index providers follow suit, total outflows could reach $8.8 billion.

> Hot Take: Removing MSTR from indices is akin to traditional finance "revoking the shares" of Bitcoin companies—but Saylor probably couldn't care less, since his shareholders were never buying an "operating business" in the first place, but rather a leveraged ticket to Bitcoin.

Sources: Wu Blockchain

Avalanche to Provide Core Technology for NYSE-Linked Tokenized Security Platform

The WSJ reports NYSE's clearing platform selected Avalanche for its ledger technology, supporting 24/7 trading, clearing, and settlement. This marks another milestone in the convergence of traditional exchange infrastructure and public blockchain technology.

Sources: WSJ

Bybit Mass-Delists Three Perpetual Contracts

Three USDT perpetual contracts—HAJIMI, AGI, and 4STOCK—will be delisted on Nov 13, with no specific reason provided. Such mass cleanups typically point to insufficient liquidity or stalled project development.

Sources: Bybit

Chips / Hardware

SpaceX Attempts Rack-Level "De-NVIDIAization"

Musk's team was reported to be purchasing only NVIDIA chips, bypassing the L6 compute boards to self-develop the Kessel rack system. This represents a substantive move by a major client to circumvent NVIDIA's complete machine solutions upstream; if successful, it will directly impact NVIDIA's gross margin structure.

Sources: IT Home

Gallup Poll Shows US Attitudes Toward AI Deteriorating

(No sources available, skipping)

Microsoft Commits to Covering Its Own Power Costs for AI Compute Expansion

Against a backdrop of increasing grid strain, Microsoft is internalizing power costs to seek community acceptance for data center expansions. The head of Texas's grid operator publicly called for data centers to voluntarily curtail usage before blackouts occur later that same day.

Sources: IT Home

US Equities

Nasdaq Rises 2.3% Intraday, CoreWeave Earnings Beat Fuels AI Trading Revival

CoreWeave's Q3 revenue surged 167% year-over-year to $3.66 billion, driving its stock intraday peak of 25%. Before NVIDIA's after-hours plunge, the market was celebrating that AI compute demand hasn't slowed.

> Hot Take: During the day everyone popped champagne over "no AI demand bubble," but by night NVIDIA's gossip pulled the entire sector back to reality—showing that in the market's AI pricing, human factors and narratives outweigh financial figures.

Sources: CNBC | Wallstreetcn

Finance / Macro

December Rate Hike Expectations Rise to 100%, Gold Breaks Below $4,000

October CPI exceeded expectations for the third consecutive month, pushing market pricing for a December rate hike straight from 70% a month ago to fully priced in. The Dollar Index hit a new 1.5-year high, while gold broke below the $4,000 mark. Goldman Sachs forecasts rate hikes in December and March, while Deutsche Bank bets on three consecutive hikes.

Sources: Fastbull | FirstSquawk

Two Tankers Explode and Catch Fire in Strait of Hormuz, Carrying Over 4 Million Barrels of Oil

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claims both vessels were attacked on "unauthorized routes," while Iran's parliament speaker stated on the same day that the Strait of Hormuz "will not return to pre-war conditions." Oil prices jumped accordingly, and compounded by news of the US Treasury Secretary moving into military housing amid Iranian threats, geopolitical risk premiums quickly returned.

Sources: IBTimes

China Approves Eli Lilly Oral GLP-1 Weight Loss Drug

Orforglipron received approval in China. The oral formulation will directly disrupt the domestic weight loss drug market landscape and pose competitive pressure to Novo Nordisk's injectables.

Sources: FirstSquawk

The Undercurrent Today

All the major news today points to a single question: How severe is the "rule of man" risk within AI narratives? NVIDIA lost hundreds of billions in market cap overnight due to its CEO's personal scandal, yet CoreWeave proved on the exact same day that compute demand itself remains completely intact, growing revenue by 167%. MSCI ejected Bitcoin-holding companies from indices using the litmus test of "are you actually a real company?" When the market is forced to distinguish between "the business itself" and "the narrative surrounding the people driving it," it signals that this industry's pricing framework is far from mature. AI and crypto finally find themselves on the same boat today regarding this very issue.