Nvidia wipes $400bn off market value as board opens probe into CEO Jensen Huang
Nvidia shares fell as much as 8.8% on Monday, at one point erasing almost $400bn of market value, after chief executive Jensen Huang told staff he had been unfaithful to his wife and the board opened an investigation into his contacts with a former Megaspeed International executive whom Washington suspects was recruited by a Chinese intelligence agency.
In a memo to employees, the 63-year-old Huang apologised directly: "I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am very sorry." He had previously said there was nothing improper in his relationship with the woman, who worked for a Singapore-based client. Nvidia's board said it had confidence in Huang and "no reason to believe" that either national security or Nvidia's secrets had been compromised, but promised the investigation would "examine all available information".
Huang has been the public face of the artificial intelligence boom, touring the world to promote AI computing and drawing crowds captivated by what has been dubbed "Jensanity". Nvidia, the leading maker of AI chips and one of the world's most valuable companies, has also become a key financier of AI infrastructure, working with major Wall Street firms on a $500bn initiative and channelling funds into the AI supply chain and emerging customers. The company reached a record market capitalisation of almost $5.8tn in October; that has since slipped below $5tn on concern about the sustainability of AI infrastructure spending.
The scrutiny lands as Congress returns to negotiate the final version of the fiscal 2027 defence bill, where Senate talks already include proposals on chip location verification, remote access and advanced AI chip exports, which Nvidia and AMD have been lobbying the White House and Commerce Department to remove or narrow. Democrats take control of the committee in January after winning both chambers, intensifying scrutiny of Nvidia's China sales. President Donald Trump defended Huang on Sunday, calling him "a good person" who should remain chief executive: "I haven't spoken to him about it. I just know he's a good person, but you never know what's going on."
Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon said the disclosures "highlight the considerable risk to Nvidia of relying on a key figure". "Nvidia is not just any company and Jensen is not just any CEO; he is Nvidia, he clearly defines strategy and long-term direction and (with reportedly 60 people reporting to him) pulls most of the strings at the company," she said. Nvidia, based in Santa Clara, California, has no public succession plan and no clear successor to Huang, who has repeatedly said he wants to stay in the job for decades and has built an informal structure around himself without conventional hierarchy.
What it means for Pakistan: For Pakistan, the shock to Nvidia's share price is a reminder of how much of the global AI trade now rests on a single company and a single executive. Pakistani investors with exposure to US technology stocks through mutual funds or offshore brokerage accounts face sharper swings, while the country's ambitions in AI and data-centre development depend on access to Nvidia hardware that is already constrained by US export controls. Any widening of Washington's chip-export restrictions, which Nvidia is lobbying against, would shape the cost and availability of AI computing for Pakistani fintechs, universities and startups building on imported infrastructure.
