Shares were down around 5% by midday and were on track to erase about $200bn in value. Other estimates put the loss nearer $250bn, or £190bn. Reuters estimated that a fall of about 6% from the prior close put more than $280bn at risk. The drop extended a six-month slide. Nvidia, once the world’s most valuable company, has lost more than 20% since May.
He co-founded the company with two other engineers in 1993. Its chips were first built for gaming. Huang later steered the business toward AI, and it became the world’s second most valuable company and one of the richest people in tech became one of its most influential voices, including on chip export controls to China and rules for open-source AI models.
Hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped from the company’s market value as investors weighed Huang’s future and the possible damage to a firm at the centre of the artificial-intelligence boom.
Huang, married to his wife, Lori, since 1985, told employees in an email on Sunday that he had had an affair and would cooperate with an internal investigation. He said he had been “unfaithful,” apologised for hurting his wife and their children, and said he was “committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America’s national security.”.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that he had not spoken to Huang about the matter. He called the Nvidia boss an “honourable guy,” said “I think he probably has an excuse for it,” and said he believed Huang would and should stay as chief executive.
Fernandez said she did not expect the board to remove Huang unless there was glaring evidence of wrongdoing tied to national security or intellectual property, “but I bet they start bringing someone up as his number two, to have there for the future.”. Alice Huang was managing director of the Singaporean company Megaspeed, which has had dealings with Nvidia. The company said in a statement that neither trade secrets nor US national security had been compromised.
Maguire said Huang “did something incredibly dumb” but remained “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of this generation.”.