Chip giants stock price falls more than 8 percent amid speculation over co-founder’s position.
Chip giant Nvidia’s stock price has tumbled amid reports that its board of directors is meeting to consider the future of CEO Jensen Huang.
Nvidia shares fell 8.6 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday as questions swirled over Huang’s position at the top of the $4.2 trillion company.
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The plunge comes after The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times reported that Nvidia’s board of directors would discuss Huang’s position over allegations that he engaged in an extramarital relationship with an Nvidia employee, in addition to an affair with a woman accused of working with Chinese intelligence services.
Nvidia, which launched an investigation into Huang on Sunday, did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment.
Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993, is one of the most visible faces of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, spearheading the development of high-end graphics processing units used to train and run frontier models.
The leather jacket-sporting tech executive’s position has also placed him at the centre of the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China, which are locked in a battle for supremacy in AI.
As a confidant of US President Donald Trump, Huang has lobbied for the easing of restrictions on exports of high-end chips to China, putting him at odds with national security hawks in Washington who argue that Beijing must be blocked from access to cutting-edge US tech.
Seismic moment
If Nvidia’s board were to oust Huang, 63, it would mark a seismic moment for the chip giant.
Viewed as integral to Nvidia’s meteoric rise to the ranks of the world’s most valuable companies, Huang is known for a centralised leadership style that places him at the centre of the company’s day-to-day operations and strategic decisions.
“Jensen is Nvidia; without him, the company loses its central, animating spirit,” Jay Goldberg, a senior analyst at Seaport Research Partners in San Francisco, told Al Jazeera.
“The organisation is built around him and replacing him will be very painful organisationally, and impossible to do personality-wise.”
It is unclear whether Nvidia has a succession plan, and analysts see few obvious candidates to take Huang’s place.
Dan Ives, senior managing director at Yorkville Ives, said Huang has been the “hearts and lungs” of Nvidia and that investors will closely scrutinise the executive’s possible replacement.
“We believe Nvidia’s value is $300 per share with Jensen as CEO and $225 per share without Jensen as CEO,” Ives said in a note to clients, adding that the company would navigate the turmoil and “remain a core foundational piece of the AI Revolution.”
“Jensen is not replaceable by another CEO or group of interim executives, but Nvidia likely now has to move on without Jensen at the helm, which seemed like a Twilight Zone episode narrative before Sunday afternoon when the news broke,” Ives said.
International intrigue
Nvidia has been the focus of international intrigue over the past week amid reports that Huang had a relationship with a Chinese woman who US intelligence officials determined had been recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security.
US officials have not provided evidence for the claims about the woman, a Chinese tech executive named Alice Huang.
Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed, has not publicly commented on the allegations.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied the claims, calling them “entirely groundless, speculative and intended to smear and malign China”.
Nvidia’s board of directors said on Sunday it had opened a probe into whether Huang had been targeted in a foreign intelligence operation, while also expressing confidence in the executive.
Huang, who admitted to being “unfaithful” to his wife and apologised to his family, pledged to cooperate fully with the inquiry and said he was committed to protecting Nvidia and US national security.