NVIDIA CEO Sells $37M in Shares Amid China Sales Resumption

The chief executive officer of NVIDIA, a prominent chip manufacturer, has sold 225,000 shares of the company's stock, amounting to approximately 37 million dollars. This sale is part of a broader plan announced in March, which allows the executive to sell shares over the course of the year. The latest transaction follows a previous sale of 225,000 shares worth around 36 million dollars, disclosed last week.

According to InsiderScore data, the executive has sold a total of 1.2 million shares of NVIDIA stock this year, with a total value of approximately 1.9 billion dollars. The executive's plan, announced in March, aims to sell up to 6 million shares by the end of the year, matching the number sold in the previous year. In 2022, the executive sold shares worth over 7 billion dollars through a pre-arranged plan.

The executive's net worth has surged due to the increasing demand for artificial intelligence and the growing need for graphics processing units that support large language models. NVIDIA's market capitalization has exceeded 4 trillion dollars, making it one of the most valuable companies globally. This surge in market value has also elevated the executive's ranking on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, surpassing Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway.

Other high-ranking officials at NVIDIA have also been selling shares. For instance, board member Brooke Seawell recently sold shares worth 16 million dollars. Additionally, in June, several executives collectively sold shares worth over 10 billion dollars, with more than half of these transactions occurring in June.

NVIDIA has recently received positive news regarding its operations in China. The company announced plans to resume sales of its H20 chips to China following assurances from the U.S. government that the necessary export licenses would be granted. Earlier this year, the U.S. government had indicated that NVIDIA would need approval to export the H20 chips, which are specifically designed for the Chinese market.

In a statement released on Tuesday, NVIDIA confirmed that the U.S. government had assured the company of the necessary licenses, allowing it to resume shipments soon. The executive also expressed hope during a press conference in Beijing that NVIDIA would be able to sell even more advanced chips to China in the future.

NVIDIA is developing a new line of GPU products based on the Blackwell architecture, including models like the B30, B40, and RTX 6000D, which are expected to begin shipping between August and September. This strategic move is seen as a significant adjustment to meet the demands of the Chinese market.

The H20 chip, designed specifically for the Chinese market, is based on the Hopper architecture and features 96GB of HBM3 memory and a memory bandwidth of 4.0TB/s. Its FP8 performance is 296 TFLOPS, and its FP16 performance is 148 TFLOPS. Compared to the H100, the H20 has 41% fewer GPU cores and 28% lower performance.

With the U.S. government's approval, the H20 chip is set to return to the Chinese market, providing a significant boost to NVIDIA's sales in the region. This development has led to a surge in NVIDIA's stock price, with several institutions raising their target prices for the company's shares. For example, the investment firm Needham increased its target price for NVIDIA from 160 dollars to 200 dollars, maintaining a "buy" rating.