Nvidia Slides as Board Weighs Jensen Huang’s Future

Nvidia shares dropped 7.6% to $160.50 in premarket trading on November 12, after falling more than 8% in after-hours trading the previous evening. The board had discussed whether Huang should remain CEO, amid scrutiny of two extramarital affairs, one involving a woman suspected of links to Chinese intelligence. Nvidia had not announced a decision to replace him.

The declines spread to other AI-linked stocks and U.S. market futures. Intel, Marvell Technology and Micron fell between 2.7% and 3.5% before the opening bell, while infrastructure company CoreWeave dropped about 7%. AMD and Broadcom rose. Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.86%, and S&P 500 futures fell 0.4%.

On November 9, Nvidia announced that it was examining allegations that a foreign intelligence service had sought to target Huang. Outside legal advisers are assisting an independent-director committee that is supervising the inquiry. The company said it saw no indication that classified information or corporate secrets were affected, and expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team.

Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has led it as its processors became central to the expansion of AI infrastructure. Its shares are down about a third from their peak at the start of October, a loss of more than $1.5 trillion in market value; counting the latest after-hours decline, they are down roughly 15% this year.

Investors are also awaiting Nvidia’s fiscal third-quarter results, scheduled for November 17, for an update on the appetite for its AI processors and data-center operations. A change at the top could raise questions about leadership continuity at a company with an outsized influence on markets and the AI industry.