What Does Nvidia's Selloff Mean for a 68-Year-Old With $940,000 of a $2.3 Million IRA in the Stock?

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) fell another 6.41% in Tuesday’s session to $167.22. That adds to a 17.24% slide over the past week and a 27.07% drop over the past month. Take a hypothetical 68-year-old married retiree, filing jointly, with a $2.3 million traditional IRA that holds $940,000 of Nvidia. For that retiree, this selloff is hitting the money that has to pay for the next 25 years.

Why Nvidia Is Falling Right Now

The trigger is a governance issue. Business results are still growing. Nvidia opened a probe into CEO Jensen Huang, and the stock fell for a second day as investors weighed fallout of the CEO’s affair with an alleged spy. The independent members of Nvidia’s board issued a statement on Tuesday.

The latest numbers point the other way. Second-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue reached $96.22 billion, up 105.8% year over year. Non-GAAP EPS of $2.22 beat the $2.09 consensus. Management guided third-quarter revenue to $108.0 billion ±2%, excluding China data center compute. The shares now sit close to their 52-week low of $163.90 and well below the 52-week high of $243.37. Over one year the stock is down 10.91%.

How a Modest Stake Grew Into 41% of the IRA

The longer record explains the size of the position. Nvidia is up 470.12% over five years and 7,647.88% over ten. At the five-year starting price of $29.33, the same share count was worth about $164,874. Without a single new purchase, growth carried Nvidia to 41% of the account.

That creates concentration risk with so much of a portfolio rides on one company that a single news event can change the retirement plan. The past month shows it. At the October 9 price of $229.28, these shares were worth roughly $1.29 million. From here, each 10% move in Nvidia changes the IRA by $94,000, or about 4.1% of the total balance. A beta of 2.247 means the stock has historically moved more than twice as much as the broad market.

Selling Inside a Traditional IRA Costs Nothing in Tax Today

This is the retiree’s biggest advantage. Under federal law, amounts “paid or distributed out of an individual retirement plan shall be included in gross income” (26 U.S.C. § 408(d)(1)). Tax applies when money leaves the account. A sale and buy back inside the IRA triggers no capital gains tax, however large the embedded gain. When dollars do come out, they are taxed as ordinary income, and the cost basis never matters.

That also means the net unrealized appreciation rule does not apply here. NUA covers employer stock distributed in kind from a 401(k), and Nvidia shares in a traditional IRA get no capital gains treatment at withdrawal. In practice, cutting the position in half (about $470,000) would bring Nvidia to roughly 20% of the account with no 2026 tax bill. In a taxable brokerage account, the same move could produce a large capital gains bill.

Future RMDs Will Swing With the Stock

Required minimum distributions start at age 73 under current IRS guidance, so this retiree still has several years to go. Each RMD is based on the prior year-end account balance. With 41% in one volatile stock, the taxable withdrawal in the early RMD years will depend heavily on where Nvidia closes each December 31. A rally drives the required withdrawal and the tax bill higher. A slump reduces both, but it also forces sales after a drop. Missing an RMD triggers an excise tax of 25% of the shortfall (26 U.S.C. § 4974(a)). That first required withdrawal often lands harder than people expect on a pre-tax balance this size, and we walked through how to reduce it years in advance in a free guide here.

Qualified charitable distributions open up at age 70½, with a maximum annual exclusion of $108,000 for tax year 2025, according to IRS Publication 590-B.

2026 Tax and Medicare Lines That Matter

Every trimming strategy eventually meets these brackets. For tax year 2026, married couples filing jointly get a standard deduction of $32,200. The 22% rate applies above $100,800, 24% above $211,400, and 32% above $403,550.

Medicare adds a second set of thresholds. In 2026, joint filers with income up to $218,000 pay the standard Part B premium of $202.90 a month. Above that, the premium rises to $284.10, with a Part D surcharge of $14.50 a month. Taxable IRA withdrawals and Roth conversions both count toward that income.

Four Paths for the Nvidia Position

1. Hold. Keep the full position and rely on the fundamentals: revenue that more than doubled last quarter and a $99.0 billion remaining buyback authorization. The cost is that 41% of the account stays tied to how the CEO probe ends and to one earnings cycle at a time.
2. Trim and diversify in one step. Sell part of the position inside the IRA and move the proceeds into broader holdings. This triggers no 2026 tax. The trade-off is giving up some of any rebound if the governance worry passes quickly.
3. Rebalance gradually. Sell set amounts on a schedule, such as quarterly, to cut the weight over a year or two. This spreads out timing risk. It also leaves the account exposed to further declines in the meantime.
4. Convert some shares to a Roth after the drop. A conversion moves shares at today’s lower price, so the same tax bill covers more shares and any recovery grows tax-free. IRS guidance says conversion distributions are includible in your gross income, so the 2026 brackets and IRMAA levels above apply. Our Roth Conversion Playbook series walks through the mechanics.

These paths can also be combined. Doing nothing is still a decision: it keeps the position at its current size.

What to Watch Before the Next Move

The next hard data point is the earnings report, expected November 17 after the close (the company has not confirmed the date). If revenue lands near the $108.0 billion guide and the board’s review moves toward a resolution, the selloff will look like a governance shock laid over a growing business. If the probe broadens or guidance slips, the stock could break below its 52-week low. Then a 41% position would be eating into the rest of the retirement plan.

For this retiree, the IRA removes the tax obstacle to shifting before December 31. What remains is deciding how much of a $2.3 million retirement should depend on one company’s next headline.