Nvidia Shares Drop as Board Launches Probe — 2nd Update

By Jiahui Huang

Nvidia shares fell premarket as investors assessed the consequences of investigations into Chief Executive Jensen Huang's affair with an industry executive suspected of working for Chinese intelligence.

The decline came as Nvidia's board said it is launching a probe into reports that its chief executive has been the target of a foreign espionage effort. U.S. officials last year concluded that Chinese citizen Alice Huang, then a top executive at Megaspeed International, was sharing information with the Chinese government while working with Nvidia to build data centers in Asia, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier. Huang, who also goes by Huang Le, isn't related to the Nvidia CEO.

Jensen Huang apologized to his staff Sunday for being unfaithful to his wife.

The company's board on Sunday said it has no reason to believe either Nvidia's secrets or national security were compromised and expressed confidence in the CEO's leadership. A committee of independent directors helped by outside counsel will oversee the probe, the board said in a statement, and the "inquiry will examine all available information."

China's Foreign Ministry rejected the allegations of spying, saying Monday that claims the woman named in the Nvidia CEO's affair has ties to Chinese intelligence are "unfounded."

Analysts said that, at a minimum, the investigation would spark congressional inquiries and create an overhang on the stock.

Jensen Huang will likely continue as CEO without interruption in the near term, analysts at Yorkville Ives said. However, they noted the possibility of him being removed from his role depending on the board investigation.

"This will add risk to the stock, as he is so important to the Nvidia story and strategy globally," Dan Ives and others wrote in a note.

On a broader level, the matter will increase U.S. scrutiny of the sale of chips to China, which remains a key battleground issue in Washington, the analysts said.

Jukan Choe of Citrini Research echoed the sentiment, noting Jensen Huang's outsize influence over Nvidia and the company's lack of an obvious successor.

Nvidia's ability to retain a startup-like culture despite its size has been largely driven by its co-founder, Choe said. Concerns may emerge that innovation could slow if his leadership is weakened, he added.

Shares in the AI chip leader were recently 5.4% lower in premarket trading Monday.

Shares in Nvidia, roughly flat so far this year, are off about 22% from their peak in October. Semiconductor stocks sold off last week as the Democrats' midterm election victory supercharged anxieties over an artificial-intelligence trade that had been building for weeks.

--Sherry Qin contributed to the article.

Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 09, 2026 04:49 ET (09:49 GMT)