Nvidia shares fall as board weighs CEO Jensen Huang’s future

Nvidia shares fell as much as 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday amid reports that its board planned to discuss whether to remove CEO Jensen Huang, who has acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife as the company investigates his conduct.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the board’s plans, citing people familiar with the matter. NBC News said it had not confirmed that the board was meeting Wednesday night, and Nvidia did not respond to its requests for comment.

The stock fell more than 8% to $159.51 in after-hours trading, CBS News reported. NBC News said the decline would erase almost $400 billion in market value if it carried over to Thursday’s regular trading session. CBS News reported that Nvidia’s market value had already fallen by more than $450 billion since the company announced its investigation into Huang on Nov. 8.

In a message to employees Sunday, Huang acknowledged having an affair and apologized to his wife and their two children, both of whom work at Nvidia, according to CBS News. “There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” he wrote. NBC News quoted Huang as saying in the note that he had been “unfaithful to his wife,” without specifying details.

The investigation comes amid reports linking Huang to Alice Huang, a Chinese business executive who is not related to him. CBS News reported that U.S. intelligence agencies suspect she is an asset of China’s Ministry of State Security. NBC News reported that officials believe she was a Chinese intelligence operative. China has denied the allegations, according to NBC News.

Separately, The New York Times reported that Huang had a relationship with an executive who reported to him, citing five people who worked at Nvidia, according to NBC News. NBC News said it had not confirmed the Times’ report.

Corporate governance experts said Huang’s alleged relationship with Alice Huang appeared to violate Nvidia’s code of conduct, CBS News reported. The code warns that personal relationships can create conflicts of interest and calls on employees “to maintain high ethical standards.” It also instructs employees not to proceed with an action they could not defend if it became public on social media or known to colleagues.

Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has led it since then. Its chips power leading artificial intelligence developers, including OpenAI and Anthropic, according to NBC News. Wall Street analysts see no obvious successor to Huang, CBS News reported.

“The news is obviously negative,” Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge said in a report quoted by CBS News, describing Huang as a prominent executive at a company central to the AI industry.

Nvidia’s 11-person board includes Huang; the other directors are designated as independent in a regulatory filing, CBS News reported. The outlet also said lawmakers in Washington were expected to question company executives about whether Nvidia chips were being sent to China through other countries.