ARK Buys 90,443 Nvidia Shares as Huang Probe Selloff Hits

Cathie Wood's ARK Invest bought 90,443 Nvidia shares on Monday, November 9, 2026 — the first trading session after the company's board opened an independent investigation into CEO Jensen Huang. The purchase, worth an estimated $16.2 million at the close, was spread across five actively managed ETFs, with the largest piece of 51,097 shares going to the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK).

The stock did not reward the timing in the short run. Nvidia fell 4.27% to $178.67, its lowest close since April 7, 2026. The move was idiosyncratic: the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) gained 2.37% and ARKK itself rose 4.66% the same day, so the decline traced back to Nvidia's own news.

That news broke on Sunday, November 8, when Huang released a staff memo. In it, he said he had fallen short and admitted he had been unfaithful to his wife. The board announced its probe the same day. The announcement followed an October 29 report that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, who is not related to the CEO, was a suspected Chinese intelligence asset. China's Foreign Ministry called that account unsubstantiated.

At roughly $16.2 million, the buy is small relative to the size of ARK's funds, which points to a measured add rather than a major new commitment.

Is this a new position or a top-up?

It is neither fresh nor dramatic. November 9 marked ARK's third straight session adding Nvidia. During the November 5 post-midterm AI-chip selloff, ARKK and a sister fund bought 252,592 shares, worth about $45.9 million at that day's $181.60 close.

Going into November 9, ARKK already held 1,153,992 Nvidia shares, making the chipmaker the fund's eighth-largest position at 3.67% of assets. In each fund, the new purchase came to about 0.15% to 0.16% of assets. ARK was keeping up a position it already held with conviction.

One caveat applies to the numbers. The daily trade file is unofficial and leaves out creation and redemption activity — the process of issuing and retiring ETF shares — so ARK's updated holdings files will show the final position.

The takeaway: ARK is averaging into an existing holding at a lower price, not making an outsized bet on the controversy.

What did ARK sell to fund the purchase?

ARKK sold 72,700 Tempus AI shares, 68,997 Block shares and its last 519 Broadcom shares. Other ARK funds trimmed several more names:

• 8,509 Palantir shares
• 150,588 BYD shares
• 3,712 Synopsys shares
• 64,295 shares of ARK's own spot Bitcoin ETF

The firm also bought 405,720 SoFi shares. Wood typically buys weakness in names she favors and pays for it by trimming other holdings; in this reshuffle she moved AI money out of Broadcom and Palantir and into Nvidia at a discount.

The pattern is routine portfolio rotation, executed against the backdrop of a governance crisis.

Why buy into a governance scandal?

ARK is betting the business survives the controversy. Nvidia's fiscal second-quarter revenue was $96.221 billion, up 105.85% year over year. For the third quarter, the company forecast $108.0 billion, plus or minus 2%.

Two risks stand out. The first is dependence on a single leader. The second is export controls: any finding that links Huang's conduct to national security could push Washington toward tougher rules on chip sales to China. Bill Ackman wrote on X that "Even incredible humans make mistakes" and said he hoped the matter would stay personal rather than become a national-security problem.

In plain terms, the investment case rests on revenue momentum; the risk case rests on regulators.

Does valuation leave room for error?

Nvidia trades at a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of about 36x while its sales are still more than doubling, and nothing disclosed so far affects demand for its chips. Nvidia also makes up only 3.67% of ARKK, so most of the fund's assets sit in Tesla, crypto and biotech names that drive its returns.

The next test arrives with earnings. The report is expected on Tuesday, November 17, after the close, although Nvidia has not confirmed the date. If the stock closes below the $178.10 April low after that report, ARK bought too early; if demand holds and the probe stays personal, the $16.2 million add will look like discipline rather than risk.