Nvidia Loses $300 Billion in Value as Board Moves to Oust Jensen Huang

Nvidia lost more than $300 billion in market value on Wednesday after reports that its board is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang. The shares fell about 8% in after-hours trading. That single-session number now stands as the clearest measure of what Huang is worth to the company he built into the engine of the AI boom.

The figure is larger than the market value of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. One man's continued employment, in other words, is worth more than the world's two most important investment banks combined.

What triggered the selloff?

Two reports landed within hours of each other. On Wednesday afternoon, the New York Times reported that Huang had an affair with a subordinate. That followed revelations earlier in the week that he had a romantic relationship with a woman who may be a Chinese spy.

The Wall Street Journal then reported that Nvidia's board was preparing to remove Huang as CEO. That was the new information that moved markets. The spy allegations were already public days earlier; the prospect of Huang's departure was not.

How do analysts price a CEO?

Stacy Rasgon, a top chip analyst at Bernstein Research, put Huang's role in plain terms. He called Huang "the architect of the US AI trajectory" in a note to investors earlier this week. AI is the most powerful new technology to emerge since the dawn of the internet 30 years ago, and the US leads the field, ahead of China in second place.

Rasgon cut his Nvidia price target to $200 from $400 on Wednesday evening. He also flagged the succession problem. "We can't even begin to speculate as to who they might find to fill Jensen's shoes," he wrote in the note. Nvidia has no obvious successor.

Why does China come out ahead?

Rasgon was blunt about the geopolitical stakes. "The primary beneficiary of Jensen's removal as Nvidia's CEO would clearly be China; we hope cooler heads prevail," he wrote earlier in the week.

Brad Gastwirth, global head of research at Circular Technology, made the same argument on Wednesday night. "This would be a setback for the US, particularly as China continues aggressively investing in its own AI capabilities," he said. "Removing Jensen would be a tremendous mistake. Nvidia is central to America's AI leadership, and losing Jensen at this stage could create unnecessary disruption."

The mechanism is simple. China is pouring state money into its own AI capabilities. The US lead depends heavily on Nvidia's chips and on Huang's decade-long execution. Remove the operator, and the lead narrows through pure disruption, not through any Chinese breakthrough.

What pressures does the board face?

The directors cannot simply look away. Huang's conduct, especially the relationship with a possible Chinese spy, raises serious governance questions. If the board does nothing, directors expose themselves to legal risk as representatives of shareholders.

Hiring and firing executives is one of the few real powers a public company board holds. That power exists precisely for decisions like this one. But the board must also weigh the enormous cost of losing the man who built Nvidia, a cost the market marked at $300 billion on Wednesday night.

Gastwirth drew the line between the two duties. "The board obviously needs to take the allegations seriously, particularly anything involving national security," he said. "Unless the investigation uncovers something that makes his position untenable, I believe the board would be making a major strategic mistake by removing him."

What happens next?

The immediate question is the investigation's outcome. If it uncovers national-security failures, Huang's position becomes untenable and removal is defensible. If it does not, directors must decide whether a personal conduct issue justifies a $300 billion writedown of America's AI leadership — and a gift to China's catch-up bid.