Nvidia shares plunge 8% as firm probes CEO Jensen Huang’s links to suspected Chinese spy

Nvidia shares fell around 8% in early trading. (Image: Reuters)

Shares of Nvidia fell by around 8 per cent in early trading on Monday in the United States as the semiconductor firm’s Board of Directors announced an investigation after reports claimed that CEO Jensen Huang was the “target of a foreign intelligence effort,” as the co-founder admitted to having been “unfaithful” to his wife, Lori Huang.

The probe, announced by the company on Sunday, has put a spotlight on Huang’s future given Nvidia’s status as the world’s most valuable chipmaker amid the AI boom. Latest figures show the company is valued at $4 trillion.

Nvidia shares fall nearly 8%

In pre-market trading, Nvidia’s shares tumbled sharply, and when the markets opened, the shares were down by nearly 8 per cent to $171.80, BBC reported. Notably, shares of Nvidia had hit a lifetime high in October.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and his wife Lori Huang attend a state dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the White House in Washington, DC, US. (Reuters Photo, enhanced with AI)

Reports Link Jensen Huang To Chinese Businesswoman

The investigation comes after media reports claimed that Jensen had a relationship with a Chinese businesswoman, Alice Huang, who was formerly a top executive of a Singaporean data centre company that works with Nvidia, and allegedly passed the information to intelligence services in Beijing.

Reports quoted US intelligence services that believed the Nvidia co-founder was in a close relationship with Alice.

China rejects allegations of spying on Nvidia CEO

However, China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday rejected the allegations of spying on Jensen Huang, and described the claims as a smear campaign against Beijing.

Nvidia’s role in US-China semiconductor tensions

Nvidia’s semiconductor chips power several data centres and computing systems that are used to train and run Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. Due to the company’s advanced processors, it has been at the centre of US export restrictions that are targeted at restricting China’s access to cutting-edge semiconductor technology.

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Jensen is the fifth-largest shareholder with a roughly 3.6 per cent stake in Nvidia, a company which he co-founded more than three decades ago. He is known for keeping a firm grip on the chip firm, where a flat structure is followed, in which dozens of executives report directly to the CEO, Reuters reported.