Nvidia shares $NVDA are down roughly 5.9% in after-hours trading to $175 following a report that Jensen Huang admitted to infidelity and the board launched an investigation.
Yesterday, CEO Huang sent employees an email in which he openly wrote that he had been unfaithful to his wife. Nvidia’s board subsequently launched an independent investigation into whether he was targeted in a foreign intelligence operation. The relationship was with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, whom U.S. intelligence agencies identified as an asset of Chinese intelligence. The board says it currently has no reason to believe that any secrets or national security were compromised. Huang remains CEO for now.
The market reaction has been muted so far. A decline of a few percent is more a sign of uncertainty than panic, especially since Nvidia has already lost roughly 22% from its October highs. Nvidia is highly dependent on Jensen, as he can strongly influence how the stock trades based on what he says and where; this unwelcome development ahead of the results on November 17–18 adds further uncertainty.