Baird cuts Nvidia to neutral, Morgan Stanley drops it from Top Picks as Huang scandal deepens

Two of Nvidia's most reliable fans on Wall Street moved at once. Robert W. Baird downgraded the chipmaker to Neutral from Outperform on November 11, 2026, and cut its price target from $500, now at $200 — a 60% reduction. Morgan Stanley took the softer route: it pulled Nvidia off its Top Pick list but kept an Overweight rating and a $300 target.

Baird laid out three worries. It says it has limited visibility into data-center spending for 2027. It flagged the potential for demand to soften after years of relentless AI investment. And it pointed straight at uncertainty over whether Jensen Huang stays in the CEO job beyond next year.

Huang's personal life is the trigger. He has admitted to an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman alleged to be a spy for Beijing. Nvidia's board has opened an independent internal investigation, and the FBI has launched an inquiry of its own. In Washington, some have already called for Huang to step down.

The market has been voting. Nvidia closed at $168.9 on November 10, setting it up for its largest weekly decline since March 2025. The company has shed more than $427 billion in market value over recent sessions, a drop tied to both the scandal and wider pressure across tech. The stock now trades at 11.4 times forward earnings.

Morgan Stanley's reasoning was narrower — the stock had slid more than 25% since the bank added it to the Top Pick list on October 2. Baird is the outlier that actually stepped off the bullish bandwagon; its neutral call makes it a minority voice. Of the 26 analysts covering Nvidia, 25 still rate it a Buy or Strong Buy, and several firms are trimming targets or dropping it from favored lists while keeping positive ratings.

The next flashpoint is Nvidia's third-quarter report, expected November 17, 2026. Look for commentary on data-center demand heading into 2027 — the exact gap Baird says it can't see through. Baird tying part of its downgrade to Huang's tenure is unusual language for an equity research note, and it moves key-person risk from a footnote to a headline.