Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's AI Dip Call Paid Off - Just Not Most for Nvidia

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang told reporters in Seoul on June 8 that the AI sell-off was a buying opportunity, and two months later the numbers show he was right. The surprise in all this is where the biggest gains landed.

Nvidia itself barely beat the S&P 500, while Microsoft posted an 18.5% return over the same stretch. Diversified portfolios sometimes contain hidden signs of financial stability that become visible only after broad sector moves, and this period is a clear example. The returns by company, the basket performance, and the investing lesson all factor into the picture.

Huang told investors on June 8 to buy AI stocks 'at a discount'

Huang was in Seoul finalizing a partnership with SK Hynix on next-generation AI memory chips when he told reporters that AI investors should treat the pullback as a discount, as reported by The Motley Fool. Nvidia had dropped 15% from its May 14 all-time high of $235, and Alphabet and Amazon had each fallen 11%.

Huang told reporters directly that investors should be very excited because they could buy at a discount, as noted by TheStreet. The call was notable because CEOs rarely comment this bluntly on their own stock price.

Nvidia gained 5.1% since June 8, barely edging the S&P 500

Nvidia shares climbed 5.1% from June 8 through August 8, while the S&P 500 rose 4.3% over the same period, a difference of just 0.8 percentage points, as calculated by The Motley Fool. The chipmaker's stock barely outpaced the broad market despite being the company whose CEO made the call.

Nvidia reported strong Q1 fiscal 2027 results during the period, with revenue of $81.6 billion and 85% growth, and guided Q2 revenue to $91 billion. The stock moved higher, but the gains were modest relative to the strength of the numbers.

Microsoft surged 18.5% and emerged as the biggest AI winner

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock jumped 18.5% from June 8 through August 8, more than three times Nvidia's gain over the same window, as documented by The Motley Fool. The Q4 fiscal 2026 results on July 29 drove a significant portion of the move.

Azure revenue grew 43%, crossing $100 billion annually for the first time, and the company stayed cash-flow positive despite $41 billion in quarterly capex. The market rewarded Microsoft because Azure provided visible proof that AI spending was generating returns.

Amazon climbed 11.1% as AWS posted its fastest growth in 18 quarters

The Motley Fool reported that Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares rose 11.1% from June 8 through August 8. The Q2 earnings report on July 30 showed AWS revenue of $42.2 billion, growing 37% year over year.

CEO Andy Jassy said AI and chips businesses each crossed $25 billion annual run rates, as stated in Amazon's earnings release. Like Microsoft, Amazon could point to a cloud business where AI spending translates into customer-facing revenue.

Alphabet was the only name in the group to decline

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) dropped 0.5% from June 8 through August 8, the only member of the four-stock AI group to lose ground, as noted by The Motley Fool. Google Cloud grew 82% in Q2, but the stock fell after the company raised its 2026 capex outlook toward $205 billion.

Strong cloud growth alone did not guarantee a positive stock reaction. Your return on Alphabet was negative because the market weighed the spending increase more heavily than the revenue acceleration.

A four-stock AI basket returned 8.5%, roughly double the S&P 500

An equal-weight basket of Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet returned 8.5% from June 8 through August 8, roughly double the S&P 500's 4.3% gain, as calculated by The Motley Fool. Performance since June 8 broke down as follows.

• Microsoft up 18.5%.
• Amazon up 11.1%.
• Nvidia up 5.1%.
• Alphabet down 0.5%.
• Equal-weight basket up 8.5% versus S&P 500 up 4.3%.

The biggest beneficiaries may be the deployers, not the chipmaker

Huang's call was correct in direction, but the returns concentrated in companies deploying AI across cloud and enterprise services. Microsoft and Amazon outperformed Nvidia by wide margins because their cloud businesses gave investors measurable revenue linked directly to AI spending.

Warren Buffett's successor, Greg Abel, also put a large chunk of Berkshire Hathaway's cash to work during the same period, as reported by CNBC. Institutional buying during the AI pullback reinforced the idea that broad sector exposure may smooth out single-stock risk.

Bottom line

Owning the AI theme broadly rather than concentrating in a single chipmaker reduced risk and delivered better returns over the two months since June 8. An equal-weight basket of four names doubled the S&P 500's gain, while Nvidia alone added just 0.8 percentage points above the index. Microsoft's 18.5% advance and Amazon's 11.1% gain did the heavy lifting.

For retirees with AI exposure across a diversified portfolio, the takeaway is practical. Broad sector positioning captured the upside without the concentration risk, and comparing multi-name versus single-name returns on must-have investing apps makes that tradeoff straightforward to evaluate over any future window.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice.

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