Nvidia’s stock fell sharply after two reports about CEO Jensen Huang landed late Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to remove him, days after it announced an investigation into whether he was the target of a foreign intelligence effort following his admission of an extramarital affair.
The New York Times, citing five unnamed sources, reported a second affair, with an Nvidia executive who reports to him. Nvidia declined to comment to the Times.
Nvidia Without Huang? Succession Questions Grow
Premarket trading pointed to a drop of up to 8%, or about $340 billion in market value. CoreWeave, Micron, Supermicro and TSMC also fell. Bernstein downgraded Nvidia and halved its price target to $200.
Huang admitted the first affair in a Sunday memo, without naming his partner. The Times reported US intelligence officials believe Alice Huang, an executive he had grown close to, was recruited to gather information for Beijing. Huang had earlier told Bloomberg their dealings were normal business.
The board said it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised, and hired law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate.
Update: later reports by CNBC, CNN and Yahoo Finance said the board decided to part ways with Huang, and the stock fell as much as 13% before paring losses.
