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- Nvidia shares have tumbled 10% this month, with the stock feeling what traders call the "September effect".
- That plunge has wiped just under $180 billion off the semiconductor giant's market capitalization.
- Nvidia has still been the S&P 500's best performer this year, surging 189% thanks to the rise of AI and ChatGPT.
Nvidia's stellar 2023 run appears to have flamed out this month, with the semiconductor giant shedding nearly $180 billion in market value as its stock price feels the full force of the so-called "September effect".
Shares have tumbled 10% since August 31, wiping $176 billion off the chipmaker's total market capitalization, according to data from Refinitiv.
Traders' heightened anxieties about the Federal Reserve holding interest rates at a higher level for longer in order to crush inflation have weighed on stocks in recent weeks.
Nvidia also appears to have fallen victim to the September effect, a term coined to refer to the fact that equities tend to struggle in the ninth month of the year.
The S&P 500 drops 0.7% on average in September, according to Bank of America – and this year has fallen in line with that trend, with the benchmark index down 2.5% over the past 21 days.
Despite its September struggles, Nvidia is still one of the best performing stocks of 2023, with shares up 189% year-to-date.
Analysts say the mega-cap tech giant has particularly benefited from the explosion of interest in AI, as it holds a 95% share of the market for graphics processing units (GPUs), which bots like ChatGPT run on.
Nvidia became a trillion-dollar company for the first time, while its superb 2023 has also been defined by back-to-back blowout quarterly earnings reports, posted in Ma and August respectively.