Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Experiences $7.4 Billion Loss in 30 Minutes, Falls Two Positions on Forbes Rich List
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang fell to 10th place on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest individuals after his net worth dropped by $7.4 billion on Monday. This decline followed a significant fall in Nvidia’s share price amid an investigation into Huang’s relationship with a Chinese national suspected of espionage. His net worth fell from $162.2 billion to $154.7 billion within the first half-hour of trading, as Nvidia shares opened more than 7% lower, erasing $10.3 billion from his fortune.
Nvidia shares were down 5.5% by 1:30 PM EST, having initially dropped as much as 7% in premarket trading. This marked the first trading session since the company confirmed the investigation into Huang. The share price decline also impacted Nvidia’s market capitalization, which fell from $4.5 trillion. The company has frequently competed with Apple for the title of the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.
The drop in share price followed Huang’s admission of an affair. In a statement to employees, he apologized for his actions and expressed support for the ongoing investigation. Nvidia’s board has appointed a committee of independent directors and external legal counsel to review the situation, stating they have “no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised.”
Allegation against Alice Huang
According to a report by The New York Times, Alice Huang was allegedly recruited by China’s top spy agency to gather information on Jensen Huang for the Ministry of State Security. The report referenced a memo circulated within the Trump administration. The timeline of their relationship remains unclear, but they were photographed together at a bar in June 2024.
Alice Huang has connections with other leaders in the artificial intelligence chip industry, including executives at Gigabyte, a company that assembles Nvidia supercomputers. She has described herself as the CEO of Singapore-based Megaspeed, a provider of AI computing services. However, she was removed as managing director from the company’s official paperwork after eight months. Megaspeed was established in 2023 after 7Road, a Chinese gaming and cloud computing company, spun off its overseas operations in Singapore.
Trump defends Nvidia chief
US intelligence officials briefed former President Donald Trump about their findings concerning Alice Huang approximately a year ago, but no action was taken at that time. An Nvidia spokesperson previously stated that Jensen Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang were not unusual, emphasizing that meeting customers is part of his role. Huang has also been recognized as an ally and technology adviser to Trump, who rolled back restrictions on global exports of advanced AI chips.
Trump defended Huang on Sunday night, calling him an “honorable guy” and indicating that he would still include him in an upcoming visit to China.
