NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun's statement that "Marvell will become a trillion-dollar market cap company" triggered a one-day surge of 32% in the stock, creating over $600 billion in market value out of thin air. A similar "celebrity effect" is more controversial with Trump, as he has publicly praised stocks such as Micron and Dell that he holds, forcing retail investors to buy at high levels.
Institutions have long been accustomed to tracking executive statements to position themselves ahead of time, while ordinary investors can only react after the fact.
With just one statement from NVIDIA's CEO, $600 billion in market value was created out of thin air. However, as the market becomes increasingly used to following celebrity endorsements for stock trading, the anger and confusion of retail investors are spreading on Reddit forums.
Wall Street News mentioned that on Tuesday at Computex, NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun publicly stated that chipmaker Marvell is destined to become a trillion-dollar market cap company.
This statement immediately ignited the US stock market that day, with Marvell's stock price soaring over 32%, marking the largest single-day gain in three years. The market cap surged from about $192 billion on Monday to over $254 billion, creating over $600 billion in wealth out of thin air with just one statement.
Ordinary investors may have no idea about Marvell Technology's balance sheet, cash flow, or P/E ratio, and may have never even heard of this company.
But if someone knew in advance that Marvell CEO Matt Murphy would take the stage alongside Huang Renxun, whose NVIDIA is the world's most valuable company by market cap and a core symbol of the current AI wave.
So, based solely on the expectation of "the two will speak well of each other," that alone is enough reason to buy. Months ago, Marvell had already risen by 158%.
Analysts point out that in the current "stocks hardly ever fall" exuberant market environment, what often drives stock price increases are offhand statements, vague expectations, and even speculative emotions themselves.
Reddit Retail Investors' Anger: Is the Game Fair?
Marvell's surge caused a huge uproar among retail investors gathered on the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets.
Comments such as "This market is too crazy" and "This is unfair" have surged in large numbers. The core dissatisfaction lies in the fact that Huang Renxun only said a few words and instantly created hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth, while ordinary investors not only lack information advantages but also cannot position themselves ahead of time.
Some traders on the same forum had previously bet that uninformed retail investors would mistake Virgin Galactic (stock symbol: SPCE) for SpaceX (future symbol: SPCX) and profit from it.
This kind of arbitrage exploiting asymmetric information is seen by some market observers as a microcosm of the current market ecosystem.
And when the main character of the "celebrity effect" changes to the U.S. President, the intensity of this trust crisis multiplies.
Trump's Actions Spark Controversy: Self-Praise and Retail Investors?
A similar "celebrity effect" is not only seen in the tech industry. U.S. President Trump has recently publicly praised stocks he personally holds, triggering strong market reactions and deeper questions of fairness.
At the end of last month, Trump publicly praised chipmaker Micron Technology, in which he holds shares. As a result, Micron's stock price surged over 25% in a little over a week.
It is worth noting that Micron's stock price had already doubled in the two months prior to this, a period that happened to align closely with Trump's heavy buying of the stock in the first quarter.
For ordinary investors hoping to wait for a better entry point, reentering the market after Trump speaks out comes at a significantly higher cost.
Previously, Trump had also repeatedly publicly recommended Dell Technologies, at which point he held millions of dollars worth of Dell shares.
In February of this year, his first call to "go buy a Dell computer" received a lukewarm market response; however, his second public endorsement on May 8 caused Dell's stock price to spike 13% in a single day, reaching a historic high.
Subsequently, Dell's stock price rose a further approximately 72%, partly due to the company securing a $9.7 billion Pentagon contract weeks after Trump's "recommendation."
Wall Street has learned to "copy trades," and the game rules for retail investors are changing
The core contradiction of the above events lies in the increasingly widening information asymmetry between ordinary investors and those with information advantages.
Institutions and professional investors have long been accustomed to closely tracking "top-level remarks," while retail investors often can only react belatedly to market movements, facing higher costs and greater uncertainty.
This series of events has resonated on social media. One user on X platform joked:
“I'll be here waiting for either Elon Musk or Donald Trump to mention a certain stock.”
This semi-jestful remark reflects the increasingly passive position of retail investors in a market driven by the celebrity effect.
As noted by Bloomberg Opinion columnist Mark Gongloff, retail investors are bombarded daily with reports of the AI bubble possibly bursting at any moment, and the “celebrity stock-picking” phenomenon only exacerbates their distrust of the market.
When the sitting U.S. president himself is a “stock tip giver” and beneficiary, the gravity of this issue is further compounded.
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