Nvidia Futures Fall After Board Probes Reports CEO Was Spy Target

By Jiahui Huang

Nvidia futures declined as investors assessed the consequences of investigations into Jensen Huang's affair with an industry executive suspected of working for Chinese intelligence.

The drop 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.

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

The company's board said Sunday that 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 would oversee the probe, the board said in a statement, and the "inquiry will examine all available information."

At a minimum, analysts expect the investigation to 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.

Nvidia futures on CME's Globex were recently 4.1% lower at $179.77 on Monday. Nasdaq futures were last 1.1% higher.

Shares of the AI chip maker, 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.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 09, 2026 00:10 ET (05:10 GMT)