Nvidia Insider Sales Hit $410M as OpenAI’s Jalapeño Chip Tests Dominance

Nvidia’s boardroom and its competitive landscape are both sending mixed signals. While CEO Jensen Huang declared the debate over AI profitability dead during the annual shareholder meeting, a wave of insider selling and a fresh competitive threat from OpenAI are clouding the narrative. The stock closed Friday at €168.80, down more than 7% on the week and nearly 17% below its record high.

Since the start of June, Nvidia insiders have cashed out over $410 million in shares. Board member Mark A. Stevens alone unloaded 885,000 shares in mid-June, pocketing roughly $186 million. The selloff from within the company’s own leadership comes as the broader tech sector suffers a rotation out of high-risk assets, with a restrictive Federal Reserve pushing investors toward safer havens.

OpenAI added to the pressure by unveiling its first proprietary chip, dubbed “Jalapeño.” Designed jointly with Broadcom and manufactured by TSMC on a 3-nanometer process, the specialized processor targets Nvidia’s lucrative inference market — the phase where trained AI models are actually run. OpenAI claims the chip will cut AI application costs by roughly 50%. Training workloads will still rely on Nvidia GPUs, and Nvidia’s CUDA software ecosystem remains a formidable moat, but the direct assault on a key profit center has unnerved investors.

Huang is betting the broader AI cycle is still in its infancy. He pointed to physical AI and robotics as the next multi-decade growth wave, and the company is pushing ahead with its Vera Rubin platform, which includes a Vera CPU — Nvidia’s first foray into general-purpose processors. The platform is described as one of the most important product launches in the company’s history.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Nvidia?

The financials remain robust, and management is returning capital aggressively. The board approved an $80 billion share buyback program, while the quarterly dividend surged to $0.25 per share. Huang has pledged to pay out more than half of free cash flow to shareholders. Over the past fiscal year, Nvidia generated free cash flow of more than $96 billion. Revenue for fiscal 2026 climbed 65% to $216 billion, and in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, sales exploded 85% year-over-year to $81.6 billion.

China remains a weak spot. High-performance chips like the Blackwell series are barred from export to the People’s Republic, and Huang stressed that national security takes precedence over commercial interests. China’s contribution to total revenue fell to 9% in fiscal 2026. Although U.S. regulators have approved the H200 chip for export, Nvidia has yet to book meaningful sales from that product in the region.

Wall Street analysts remain undeterred. The average price target has risen to $295, supported by the fundamental momentum. On the technical side, the stock is approaching oversold territory with an RSI of 38.2, and the 200-day moving average at €163.66 is acting as a solid support level. The near-term trend has worsened, however, after the share price slipped below the 50-day line. The next major catalyst will be the quarterly earnings report due at the end of August 2026.