Nvidia announced on Thursday, November 12, 2026 that Jensen Huang had resigned as CEO, with CFO Colette Kress serving as interim chief. We covered the Nvidia move and its options repricing earlier today. This note looks at its two closest rivals, which rose as Nvidia fell.

According to Investing.com, investors bet that turmoil at Nvidia would help Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), whose AI accelerators compete directly with Nvidia's, and Broadcom (AVGO), which designs custom AI chips for large cloud companies.

Wall Street Names Its Nvidia Alternatives

Want to apply this to your own portfolio?Open OptionsPilot →

Before Nvidia's announcement, William Blair analyst Sebastien Naji upgraded AMD to outperform from market perform and downgraded Nvidia to market perform, CNBC reported. Naji wrote that "Nvidia is facing increased scrutiny and a potential leadership vacuum." He added that custom-chip (ASIC) competition "remains a risk to Instinct (particularly at Meta ... and OpenAI)," but that AMD could sell more CPUs alongside those custom programs.

According to TipRanks, Naji expects AMD's revenue to grow more than 80% next year. He also expects AMD's data-center AI revenue to overtake its server CPU revenue in the fourth quarter. TipRanks quoted Floodlines Research founder Anna Wu, who called AMD, Alphabet and Broadcom "natural beneficiaries in the short term."

Not everyone expects a quick shift. Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman told CNBC, as quoted by Moneycontrol, that "AMD can't just instantly ramp up massive additional volume even if customers look to move its way."

Three Chip Stocks, Two Directions

Cboe delayed quotes at about 12:05 p.m. ET:

| Ticker | Last | Change | Session range | IV30 | AVGO$364.15+$18.93 (+5.5%)$354.76 to $369.79~56.7% (up ~2.5 pts) AMD$585.22+$32.32 (+5.9%)$554.90 to $594.00~64.0% (up ~2.2 pts) NVDA$164.97-$8.76 (-5.0%)$148.80 to $167.14~60.9% (up ~5.5 pts)

Both rivals opened higher and kept rising, while Nvidia recovered much of its opening drop. Broadcom had traded about 23.7 million shares and AMD about 31 million. AMD was already up sharply this week, including the Anthropic-driven rally we covered on Wednesday.

Implied Volatility Rose With the Shares

Implied volatility usually falls when a stock rises, because traders tend to buy protection on the way down rather than on the way up. Today, AVGO and AMD rose more than 5% and their IV30 increased anyway.

The likely reason is demand for upside calls. Total call volume was about 222,800 versus 96,900 puts in AVGO and about 449,400 versus 215,100 in AMD. Heavy call buying can raise implied volatility, especially at upside strikes, as dealers charge more to sell those contracts.

Nvidia's November 17 earnings report also falls inside next week's expirations and could move all three stocks. At-the-money straddle midpoints:

ExpirationAVGO $365AMD $585NVDA $165 Nov 13~$11.30 (~3.1%)~$23.93 (~4.1%)~$7.15 (~4.3%) | Nov 20 | ~$25.05 (~6.9%) | ~$52.35 (~8.9%) | ~$17.65 (~10.7%) |

Where the Contracts Traded

  • AVGO: The busiest lines were Friday's Nov 13 calls from $360 to $380. The $370 strike traded about 9,600 contracts against open interest of about 2,200, and the $365 traded about 9,500 against about 2,600. Volume several times open interest suggests mostly new positions.
  • AMD: The Nov 13 $600 calls led with about 37,800 contracts against open interest of about 4,100, quoted around $5.90 to $6.30. The February 2027 $750 and $650 calls traded about 14,600 and 12,800 contracts. That is close to their existing open interest, which can indicate rolls or closing trades rather than new bets.

    • Volume does not show who bought or sold, and some calls may have been sold against stock.

    Risks of Trading the Sympathy Move

    These are educational observations, not recommendations:

  • Sympathy rallies can fade. These stocks rose on what investors expect to happen, not on new orders. Newman's point about AMD's supply limits shows how much of the rally depends on assumptions.
  • Short-dated calls bought after a 5% jump need the rally to continue by Friday. Today's higher implied volatility makes them more expensive, and that premium can drain quickly if the move stalls.
  • Nvidia's earnings are a shared risk. A strong report on November 17 could reverse the rotation, and a weak one could hit the whole AI chip group. Positions that expire Nov 20 will carry that risk.
  • Covered calls and call spreads reduce the cost of upside exposure, but they cap gains if the rally continues.
  • Put spreads can protect gains in shares at a lower cost than single puts.

    • See our implied volatility explainer and the OCC options disclosure document for background.

    Sources

  • CNBC: AMD upgraded because it will benefit from Nvidia's 'leadership vacuum'
  • Investing.com: AMD, Broadcom shares rally as Nvidia CEO Huang resigns
  • TipRanks: Why AMD and Broadcom are rising, November 12
  • Moneycontrol: Nvidia rivals AMD, Broadcom gain as Jensen Huang steps down
  • Cboe: AVGO delayed quotes and options
  • Cboe: AMD delayed quotes and options
  • Cboe: NVDA delayed quotes and options

    • *By the OptionsPilot Editorial Team. Published November 12, 2026, 9:21 AM PT. This article is for education only and is not investment advice. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors.*