Nvidia Board Meets to Decide Jensen Huang's Future as Shares Slide 8%

Nvidia's board is meeting to decide the future of co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang following the revelation of an affair with a subordinate, as the chipmaker's share price plunged in after-hours trading. The stock slid about 8% as investors absorbed the leadership uncertainty at the roughly $4tn company.

The affair has drawn wider scrutiny because the subordinate, identified as Alice Huang, is alleged to be a Chinese spy. Nvidia has hired a major US law firm to investigate the spying claims, and the company and Huang have been sued in a California court over the relationship. The controversy has also become entangled in US-China tensions, with Donald Trump saying the FBI is investigating Huang's links to Alice Huang even as Trump praised the chipmaker's CEO.

Huang's potential departure would leave a leadership vacuum at the company he built into a family business and one of the most valuable in the world. The board now faces a difficult decision over whether to stand by its founder or move to succession planning. Commentators have noted that Nvidia's over-reliance on Huang represents a business risk, and the episode has subjected the chipmaker to political scrutiny on top of the reputational damage.

For investors, the immediate focus is the board's decision and the resulting leadership question at a company whose market value makes it a cornerstone of global equity portfolios. The 8% after-hours decline underscores how sensitive the stock is to uncertainty around Huang, who has been the public face of Nvidia's rise. The outcome of the board meeting, and the law firm's findings on the spying allegations, are likely to drive sentiment in the shares in the sessions ahead.