Nvidia's stock price feels the full September effect, suffering a $180 billion wipeout

• 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'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 "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.