Nvidia Lost Almost $200 Billion in Market Value on One Day as Huang Affair Sparks Espionage Investigation

Nvidia shares plunged Monday after revelations about CEO Jensen Huang’s extramarital affair with a businesswoman suspected of having ties to Chinese intelligence triggered an internal investigation.

Shares of the semiconductor company fell as much as 8% during early trading on November 9 before paring losses to a little over 4%. The company lost $192 billion in market capitalization in a single session.

The selloff added to an already difficult month for the company, whose shares have declined approximately 23% over the past 30 days amid growing concerns about excessive valuations and a potential bubble in artificial intelligence stocks.

However, Monday’s decline stood out because it unfolded as broader technology stocks rallied, suggesting investors were reacting specifically to uncertainty surrounding Huang and the company’s leadership.

The controversy escalated after reports that Huang had maintained a romantic relationship with Alice Huang, no relation, a former executive at Singapore-based technology company Megaspeed.

The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence authorities had identified Alice Huang as a suspected Chinese intelligence asset who was allegedly gathering information about Nvidia’s chief executive.

The allegations have not been publicly substantiated through findings released by Nvidia’s board. China has rejected the espionage accusations, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun describing them as a groundless smear.

On Sunday, November 8, Huang acknowledged his marital infidelity in a public message to Nvidia employees. “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” Huang wrote.

He also accepted responsibility for damaging the trust of employees, shareholders and business partners, pledging to cooperate with an independent investigation. Nvidia’s board announced that a committee of independent directors, supported by outside legal counsel, would examine whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation.

The company emphasized that it currently has no reason to believe that national security or confidential corporate information had been compromised. Nevertheless, investors now face an additional layer of uncertainty surrounding a company whose extraordinary growth has been closely associated with its founder.

Huang, who co-founded Nvidia more than three decades ago, controls approximately 3.6% of the company’s shares and remains central to its technology strategy, relationships with major customers and international expansion.

“The key-person risk is massive since Jensen co-founded Nvidia, built the CUDA ecosystem that underpins its competitive advantage and personally anchors relationships with the largest AI customers and governments,” Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at Futurum Equities, told Reuters.

The potential financial consequences extend beyond the immediate stock decline. Nvidia’s advanced processors are essential to the global AI infrastructure boom, while restrictions on semiconductor exports to China have made the company a central player in tensions between Washington and Beijing.