Aswath Damodaran sold half his stake in Nvidia after the recent share surge for one simple reason: value investing. “The run up has been just so astonishing that I cannot in good conscience hold on to it and call myself a value investor,” the finance professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business told Tech Zone Daily’s ” The Exchange ” on Thursday. Nvidia shares have taken a big leg up in recent days, after a jaw-dropping quarterly earnings report showed booming demand for artificial intelligence. Investors this year continue to bet on AI-focused stocks in the wake of ChatGPT’s blockbuster debut, with a hefty chunk of the market’s gains stemming from this select group of stocks. NVDA YTD mountain Nvidia shares have soared this year on the growth in AI applications. The chip stock popped more than 24% in the trading session following its financial report, and then steadily built on those gains Friday and Tuesday. Nvidia gave up some of its wins Wednesday, but last traded more than 5% higher Thursday. Even though Damodaran sold half his stake, the esteemed finance professor retains a positive stance on Nvidia, viewing it as an “opportunistic chipmaker” and “amazing” company. “It seems to find every opportunity in the market, and find a way to cater to it, whether it’s crypto, whether it’s gaming — and now with AI,” he said. “It almost always seems to be the first in line to be able to take advantage of it and that can’t be accidental.”