Nvidia Loses $250 Billion After Huang Affair Triggers Probe

Nvidia lost roughly $250 billion (£190 billion) in market value on Monday after its board announced an independent investigation into CEO Jensen Huang's affair with an alleged Chinese spy.

The stock dropped about 6%. The slide came after Huang admitted he was "unfaithful" to his wife and apologised for hurting her and their children. He added that he was "committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America's national security" and would cooperate with the investigation.

The board's statement said the probe would begin "in light of recent reporting that founder and chief executive Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort." Nvidia said it had no reason to believe company secrets or national security were compromised.

Who is the alleged spy?

US intelligence officials believe Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, was a spy for Beijing, according to a New York Times report. She was managing director of Singaporean company Megaspeed, which has had dealings with Nvidia.

The report said Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a memo to top officials in Washington last spring warning that the Nvidia boss was in a close relationship with a Chinese spy.

China has rejected the claims. Its foreign ministry said allegations about Chinese spies were "entirely groundless, speculative and intended to smear and malign China."

What does Congress want from Huang?

The Nvidia co-founder has been requested to appear for a joint closed-door briefing before several Congressional committees next week. Members of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee last week asked Huang to testify on his interactions with Alice Huang and on Nvidia's security protocols around espionage.

"Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the PRC's access to sensitive US technology and information," congressmen Brian Mast, John Moolenaar and Rick Crawford wrote in a letter. "It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk."

Why Huang's seat is less secure than Musk's or Zuckerberg's

Other tech bosses, including Elon Musk, publicly backed Huang to keep leading the company. President Donald Trump called the Nvidia boss an "honourable guy."

But Huang's position is structurally more exposed than most founder-CEOs. He owns only about 3.5% of Nvidia, and the company runs a single-class voting structure — his stake carries no veto power over a board decision to remove him. By contrast, founders like Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Musk of Tesla and SpaceX hold large percentages of multiple share classes in their companies.

Victoria Fernandez, chief market strategist at Crossmark Global Investments, said there is "no natural successor" to Huang. "Nvidia is the core of this AI trade, and without them, all these other pieces start to fall apart because the financing's not there," she told the BBC.

Fernandez said she does not believe the board will oust Huang unless there is glaring evidence of wrongdoing tied to national security or intellectual property — "but I bet they start bringing someone up as his number two, to have there for the future."

What's at stake beyond the shareholders?

Huang co-founded Nvidia with two other engineers in 1993. Its chips were initially built for gaming; Huang later pivoted the company toward AI development, turning it into the world's second most valuable company.

Nvidia's chips sit at the center of the US-China AI race. Washington has previously restricted where its advanced products can be sold, and the H200 — its second most advanced semiconductor — was barred over concerns it would give China's tech industry an edge. In January, the Trump administration said Nvidia could sell H200 chips to Chinese customers under certain conditions.

Huang has opposed restricting chip sales to China, arguing it would be better for the global rollout of AI to run on US technology.

While Nvidia fell, the broader US market opened higher on Monday after last week's turmoil, and rival chipmakers benefited. The relatively modest share decline suggests investors don't expect Huang to resign or be removed — but the investigation's outcome will be closely watched, and even non-shareholders can feel the impact: pensions and savings tied to Nvidia through index funds move with the stock.

For now, analysts see the damage as short-lived. The bet is that Nvidia stays the engine of the AI trade — with or without the drama.