Jensen Huang's exit won't make your next GPU cheaper, but it might change how Nvidia treats gamers

Published Nov 15, 2026, 7:31 AM EST Monica J. White is a journalist with over a decade of experience in covering technology. She built her first PC nearly 20 years ago, and she has since built and tested dozens of PCs. PC hardware is her main beat, and graphics cards and the GPU market at large are her main area of interest, but she has written thousands of articles covering everything related to PCs, laptops, handhelds, and peripherals. From GPUs and CPUs to headsets and software, Monica's always willing to geek out over all things related to computing. Outside of her work with How-To Geek, Monica contributes to TechRadar, PC Gamer, Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, SlashGear, Whop, and Digital Trends, among others. Her ultimate goal is to make PC gaming and computing approachable and fun to any audience. Monica spends a lot of time elbow-deep in her PC case, as she's always making upgrades, testing something, or plotting out her next build. She's the go-to tech support person in her immediate circle, so she's never out of things to do. Whenever she has spare time, you'll find her gaming until the early hours and hanging out with her dog. What a week in tech. The scandal surrounding now-ex-Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's extramarital affairs shook the very foundations of the company that he himself had founded in 1993. Huang resigned, and although Nvidia goes on, no one is sure what comes next. Meanwhile, PC users are seeing opportunity where others see disaster. Will all the drama around Nvidia finally help GPU prices? And is there any way to spin this whole story as good news? Jensen Huang is out, and Nvidia is facing its biggest leadership crisis yet The king of AI has left the building Credit: NVIDIACredit: Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek This whole week has been wild. I've been covering PC hardware for a decade, and most people I've spoken to this week could hardly believe what just happened. Nvidia without Jensen Huang? How does that even work? And yet, it very much happened. No sooner did we hear about Huang's extramarital affairs than things went from bad to worse. And yes, this does seem like an odd thing to sink a company without context, but it's all a lot more nuanced than some media will have you believe. On November 11, Nvidia's board accepted Huang's resignation, bringing his 33-year reign to an abrupt end. Nvidia's longtime CFO, Colette Kress, now serves as interim CEO. It's difficult to put into words how significant this is. It's significant enough to have fully escaped the bubble of PC hardware enthusiasts. My friends who barely know a thing about PCs are making jokes about the situation. People are speculating about what'll happen to Huang's iconic leather jacket. A lot of it is in jest, but the scale of it is enormous, and behind it hide real consequences. Huang didn't just run Nvidia; he built it from the ground up. It's the end of an era, and the scandal reverberated far outside the walls of Nvidia's HQ. Unsurprisingly, Wall Street wasn't exactly thrilled. Nvidia shares plunged by around 13% when trading opened on November 12, although they recovered somewhat and finished the day down 4.3%. That's more than $180 billion wiped off the company's market capitalization in a single day. Nvidia's stock price has very little to do with what you pay for a GPU Don't get your hopes up So does that mean we're getting cheaper GPUs? I'm not going to beat around the bush. There's no way GPUs will be any cheaper. No way whatsoever. Let's make one thing clear: Nvidia's market valuation and stock price have very little to do with actual GPU prices. Nvidia, as a company, as a tech giant, is just one part of the whole chain that leads to the prices we see at various retailers. The biggest part, perhaps. The catalyst that may have played a big part in starting the whole thing. But even if Nvidia closed its doors tomorrow, or if it randomly decided to start giving GPUs away for free, their prices wouldn't be affected the way you'd think. GPU prices depend on a whole bunch of factors, including manufacturing costs, memory prices, supply and demand, and the margins taken by board partners, distributors, and retailers. Nvidia's stock losing billions in value doesn't mean its graphics cards suddenly cost less to make, or that retailers are going to start clearing their RTX 50-series inventory at bargain prices. (We don't even seem to have the RTX 50-series to look forward to...) That money wasn't sitting in Nvidia's bank account waiting to be spent, either. Market capitalization is simply the value investors assign to a company's outstanding shares. When the stock price falls, the valuation falls with it, but it has nothing to do with the demand for GPUs (sky-high), manufacturing costs, or anything else that affects the final price. Tell XDB what you want the PC to do and how much you want to spend. We'll find parts that fit, with current prices. What will you use it for? Pick any Games or apps Optional Budget Plan my build Opens XDB, XDA's free PC builder, in a new tab. Nvidia still has the AI market keeping its business alive Gamers aren't suddenly important Given the quick leadership change, I don't expect Nvidia to fall on hard times. A company is more than its CEO, so Nvidia will pick itself back up, even if the current scandal isn't helping anything. It'll be a different Nvidia a few years down the line, but it'll still be Nvidia. Plus, don't forget that while Nvidia might be on uncertain waters, its business isn't suddenly going down the drain. The company is still making a ludicrous amount of money from AI, and that's not about to change just because Jensen Huang is no longer in charge. AI accounts for 92% of Nvidia's revenue, and that should tell you everything about Nvidia's priorities. Gamers haven't been the company's main source of income for years, and there's no reason to believe that will change. So, overpriced RTX 5090s aren't going anywhere. A new CEO could finally rethink how Nvidia treats PC gamers A change is as good as a rest It all sounds bleak for Nvidia indeed, but it could still turn out to be fine where gamers are concerned. I'm not going to call this situation "good news" in that sense, because it's a disaster no matter how you spin it, but there's a world in which gamers may see some positive changes from a change in leadership. Jensen Huang was instrumental in turning Nvidia into the giant it is today, and it's hard to disagree that betting on AI was the right call, given the aforementioned revenue. But a new CEO could potentially bring a different perspective to the table, and perhaps one that involves rebuilding some goodwill with the gaming community. I'd love to see more competitive gaming GPUs at more reasonable prices. I don't truly think we stand a chance of seeing this happen, but a change in leadership often echoes throughout the entire company, so Nvidia's plans may evolve over the next few years. A GPU market split right down the middle would be a real boon Do I think it'll happen? Nope Between AMD and Nvidia, it's clear there's only one leader in the GPU market, and it's not AMD. In fact, AMD's presence in the market has declined over the last couple of years, and there's not much out there to tell us that that's about to change. So will this situation give AMD an opening to wrangle some of the PC hardware market share back from Nvidia? Improbable, but maybe not impossible. It mostly depends on what AMD chooses to prioritize, and something tells me that, as is often the case, gamers will get the short end of the stick. What's going to change? For us, meaning end customers, very little will change in the near future. GPU prices are directly tied to AI demand and the RAM shortage, and both are here to stay for a while yet. Assuming Nvidia moves past the crisis and continues on just as it was with a new CEO at the helm, Jensen Huang's reign will come to an end, and the biggest impact will echo through the stock market rather than retail stores.