HSBC analyst Frank Lee downgraded Nvidia to hold from buy on Friday and cut his price target to $170 from $365, saying the chipmaker’s shares are likely to lag until a permanent chief executive is named, CNBC reported¹.

The new target implied about 2.3% upside from Thursday’s close, CNBC said, citing Lee’s note to clients¹.

“We believe the uncertainties will prevail until a permanent succession plan is laid out and the new CEO is able to demonstrate execution capabilities,” Lee said¹.

CNBC said Nvidia’s chief financial officer, Colette Kress, is serving as interim chief executive after founder Jensen Huang left the company¹.

Lee also wrote that tighter export restrictions on Nvidia products are a serious possibility and could cut his fiscal 2028 earnings-per-share estimate by 13%, CNBC reported¹. He said 11% of revenue over the past six quarters came from countries excluding the United States and Taiwan, which he treated as the possible focus of restrictions¹.

CNBC said Nvidia shares fell more than 4% following HSBC’s downgrade, and that HSBC joined other firms that lowered ratings on the stock this week, including Truist, Evercore ISI, William Blair, Oppenheimer and Bernstein¹.

CNBC said Huang left amid suspicions of an affair with a Chinese spy, which the Chinese government has dismissed, and cited other outlets’ reports of additional relationships; those allegations are not independently verified in the HSBC note as described by CNBC¹.

HSBC’s view is one analyst’s opinion. A full Nvidia reply to Lee’s note was not in the available CNBC copy¹.