Asia stocks steady as chipmakers rebound after Nvidia leadership shock

Asian stocks regained some ground on Friday as investors looked beyond the upheaval at Nvidia and returned to technology shares, encouraged by renewed confidence in the artificial intelligence trade and strong demand for semiconductor infrastructure.

The MSCI Asia Pacific index rose 0.7%, with technology shares providing the biggest lift. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.1% and S&P 500 futures advanced 0.2%, after both underlying benchmarks finished lower on Thursday.

Anthropic's planned initial public offering also supported sentiment, with demand for the shares reportedly reaching around six times the amount available.

Nvidia shares fell as much as 14% on Thursday after co-founder Jensen Huang resigned, but dip-buyers narrowed the decline to 4.3% by the close.

The company confirmed that Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress would take over as interim CEO while its board searches for a permanent replacement. Nvidia shares slipped another 3% in extended trading.

Asian chipmakers regain ground as AI investors rotate

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% and TOPIX gained 0.8%, while South Korea's KOSPI edged up 0.2%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing advanced 1.3% and Largan Precision surged 10%.

Japanese suppliers also strengthened, with Kioxia rising 1.7%, Sony adding 1.5%, TDK gaining 1.4% and Murata Manufacturing climbing 1.2%. Samsung Electronics added 0.5%, while SK Hynix was nearly unchanged.

Huang's departure could have wider implications for U.S. chip-export policy and the AI supply chain, given his efforts to retain access to China and his close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.

U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott has asked both Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify about the recent developments at the chipmaker.

Investors are nevertheless looking ahead to Nvidia's third-quarter results on Tuesday, November 17.

China and Hong Kong tech shares face chip-access concerns

Chinese and Hong Kong technology stocks remained weaker as investors assessed how Nvidia's leadership change could affect Chinese companies reliant on its processors, alongside the risk of tighter U.S. curbs on access to advanced chips through offshore data centres.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.9%, while the CSI 300 slipped 0.1% and the Shanghai Composite added 0.2%. MiniMax fell 4.9%, Z.AI dropped 7.4%, Tencent lost 2.6% and Kuaishou declined 3.1%. Foxconn Industrial Internet fell 5.6%, while Alibaba shed 0.6%.

Broader U.S.-China national-security tensions are adding to those concerns. Washington is considering barring imports of new Chinese optical transceivers used to connect equipment inside AI data centres, citing fears that the products could enable data theft, malware installation or service disruption.

Domestic substitution bets offered some support to Chinese chipmakers - SMIC rose 1.44%, NAURA Technology gained 1.13% and Cambricon advanced 1.24%.

Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.6%, New Zealand's NZX 50 lost 0.5% and Singapore's STI declined 0.7%. India's Nifty 50 Futures were little changed. 

Meanwhile, markets fully priced a quarter-point Fed increase next month and assigned a 14.5% probability to a half-point move, up from zero a week earlier. 

Brent traded near $96 a barrel after gaining 3.3% on Thursday, when Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure and risks to Strait of Hormuz shipping raised supply concerns.

Prices later slipped after Trump said Washington could proceed without a deal with Iran, adding another layer of uncertainty to the regional supply outlook.