The “Affair Rally”: Five Tech Stock Charts and the Dates That Matter

The “affair rally” is a market meme, not an established investing indicator. Its visual argument joins personal headlines to subsequent share-price gains at Amazon, Microsoft, SK hynix and Alphabet. Each example can be described historically. None, on its own, establishes that the scandal caused the return.

The original reference’s NVIDIA chart explicitly ends November 6, 2026. Huang’s public admission came November 8. That cutoff is crucial: a chart ending before the admission cannot show trading after it.

Source: NVIDIA — A Message to Our Company, November 8, 2026 ↗

We rebuilt the historical price series from daily closing prices. The common endpoint is November 6, 2026; the first observation is the trading close before the selected public report or acknowledgment. Dates below identify public disclosure events, rather than the start of a relationship.

For Bezos, the selected report date is January 9, 2019, with January 8 as the baseline. For Gates, public acknowledgment arrived on Sunday, May 16, 2021, so the prior trading close is Friday, May 14. That was acknowledgment of an old relationship; it was not a new affair beginning in 2021.

For Chey, the selected disclosure is his December 29, 2015 letter. He is chairman of parent SK Group, not the founder of SK hynix. For Brin, August 28, 2013 reporting supplies the event date. Alphabet Class A, ticker GOOGL, is the price series used.

These choices produce approximately +213% for Amazon, +114% for Microsoft, +3,563% for SK hynix and +1,239% for Alphabet through November 6. The observations below preserve the actual start prices, end prices and measurement dates. Slight differences from a social-media graphic can result from different start dates, rounding or share classes.

NVIDIA’s November 8 messages are separate evidence. Huang acknowledged infidelity. The board announced an independent inquiry, overseen by independent directors and outside counsel, following reports of foreign intelligence targeting. Its stated lack of reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised is a current assessment, not a completed finding.

AMAZON (AMZN): 82.83 USD at the 2019-01-08 close → 259.30 USD at the 2026-11-06 close; +213.05% price return.

MICROSOFT (MSFT): 248.15 USD at the 2021-05-14 close → 530.61 USD at the 2026-11-06 close; +113.83% price return.

SK HYNIX (000660.KS): 30,900.00 KRW at the 2015-12-28 close → 1,132,000.00 KRW at the 2026-11-06 close; +3,563.43% price return.

ALPHABET (GOOGL): 21.28 USD at the 2013-08-27 close → 284.78 USD at the 2026-11-06 close; +1,238.56% price return.

NVIDIA (NVDA): 230.86 USD at the 2026-10-01 close → 186.64 USD at the 2026-11-06 close; -19.15% price return. This NVIDIA window is pre-admission context, not a return measured after the admission.

Source: NVIDIA — A Message to Our Company, November 8, 2026 ↗

The four positive-return windows span roughly five to thirteen years. Those are long and unequal periods across different companies, industries, currencies and market conditions. Comparing the final percentages does not isolate an event effect.

Selected winners also leave a missing denominator: how were the cases chosen, which others were excluded, and what would each company have done without its scandal? A causal conclusion would require a justified comparison, not merely a line that rises after a news date.

These are price returns, not total returns. Closing prices account for stock splits, while dividends are excluded. SK hynix is measured in Korean won; the U.S. shares are in U.S. dollars, with no currency conversion. Each chart has its own clearly labeled vertical scale. Neither the charts nor the underlying facts establish a buy signal.

Start with the date under the chart, then identify what the line measures. Keep a social-media meme, company fundamentals and an ongoing investigation as separate questions. For the original NVIDIA statements and their context, read our earlier board-investigation breakdown.

For NVIDIA’s fifth chart, we show October 1 through November 6, 2026 solely as pre-admission context. That window returned about −19.2%; it is not a post-admission measurement or a forecast. A later trading session should not be silently inserted into a chart labeled with an earlier cutoff.

For company operations rather than the personal headline, see our connected breakdown of AI-assisted semiconductor factories and digital twins. This article and video are not financial advice.