• Nvidia shares dropped sharply in after-hours trading on Wednesday after reports that CEO Jensen Huang had an extramarital relationship with a company executive and that the board is meeting to discuss his future.
• Days earlier, Nvidia’s board said it would investigate whether Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort amid reports that he had a separate relationship with a woman US officials believe to be a Chinese spy. Huang on Sunday apologized for an extramarital affair, although he did not name the other party.
• Wall Street analysts are now questioning who could replace the Nvidia CEO, since the company has no clear, public succession plan in place.
• Nvidia represents a major engine of US economic growth and has powered the AI boom that has driven much of the stock market’s recent gains.
Nvidia shares dropped sharply in after-hours trading on Wednesday after reports that CEO Jensen Huang had an extramarital relationship with a company executive and that the board is meeting to discuss his future.
Nvidia shares ( NVDA ) fell 8.4% as of 6 p.m. ET as investors digested the developments.
Shares fell after The New York Times reported Huang had an extramarital relationship with an Nvidia executive, and the Wall Street Journal subsequently reported the Nvidia board is preparing to oust Huang, who co-founded the company three decades ago.
Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the new reports.
Days earlier, Nvidia’s board said it would investigate whether Huang was the “target of a foreign intelligence effort” amid reports that he had a separate relationship with a woman US officials believe to be a Chinese spy. Huang on Sunday apologized for an extramarital affair, although he did not name the other party.
Investors are weighing the outlook for the chipmaker that’s been at the center of the AI boom if Huang is ousted from his role. The CEO has been one of AI’s most steadfast cheerleaders, and investors have flocked to Nvidia shares because of his vision for the tech boom.
Nvidia shares dropped 9.5% across Monday and Tuesday after Huang’s weekend admission of extramarital affair and news of the Nvidia board’s investigation.
President Donald Trump has defended embattled Jensen Huang as the Nvidia CEO began facing investigations over his affair with an alleged Chinese spy.
Trump said he spoke with Huang earlier in the week and told him, “I had no idea that she was a spy,” the president told reporters.
“I really believe him,” Trump told reporters during the impromptu White House press conference on Monday. “I think that he’ll be in good shape.”
Trump has not issued fresh comments on Huang since reports of a second alleged extramarital affair, with an Nvidia executive surfaced Wednesday evening.
Kimberly Powell, vice president of healthcare at Nvidia, has canceled a planned appearance Thursday at a conference in Washington, DC.
Powell had been set to speak at the opening session of the Milken Future of Health Summit on a panel moderated by CNN.
The New York Times reported late Wednesday that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had an extramarital relationship with an Nvidia executive, naming Powell and noting that Huang and his colleague “were captured on video being affectionate at a San Jose, Calif., hotel” during an Nvidia event in March.
Conference organizers told CNN Wednesday evening she would no longer be attending.
Nvidia today is practically synonymous with AI, but the technology was hardly on the minds of its founders when they launched the company over 30 years ago.
Their discussions instead revolved around finding a way to boost the processing capabilities of computers, especially graphics-intensive applications, embattled CEO Jensen Huang previously shared.
That was the impetus for Nvidia entering the graphics processing unit, or GPU, space in 1999. (While Nvidia popularized the term, it didn’t invent it, though it is often mistakenly credited with having done so.)
Nvidia’s GPUs revolutionized the gaming industry, bringing to market new games with movie-like visuals. Games previously were in 2-D.
Eventually, the company took things one step further, creating a programming language that enabled developers to create applications to run on its hardware. By 2012, Nvidia discovered that its chips could be used to power much more than video games.
Chief among those: artificial intelligence applications.
