Nvidia shares fall 5.71% in pre-market trading after Jensen Huang admits to affair

Shares in US chip giant Nvidia fell 5.71% in pre-market trading on Futu’s Moomoo platform after chief executive Jensen Huang admitted to an extramarital affair with a Chinese businesswoman whom US intelligence agencies have determined was spying for Beijing.

However, as of press time, shares in Nvidia’s Asian suppliers had shown little reaction to the news, broadly tracking a rebound among their US peers on Friday (6 November).

Nvidia shares have fallen about 22% from their October high.

In a letter to all Nvidia employees on Sunday (8 November), US time, chief executive Jensen Huang admitted to being unfaithful to his wife and apologised to his family and employees. Nvidia’s board subsequently announced an independent investigation into Huang.

US President Donald J. Trump later described Huang as a “good guy” in an interview and said he should continue to lead the chipmaker. Nvidia’s board said there was “no reason to believe” that national security or company secrets had been compromised.

The controversy began with a report published by The New York Times on 29 October. It said Huang had an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-registered cloud computing services company Megaspeed, and that US officials suspected her of passing intelligence to China.

Analysts believe the investigation will create near-term uncertainty for Nvidia shares, but differ on whether the controversy will have a wider impact on the company and its share price.

The news broke as investors were already questioning technology stock valuations and the pace at which major technology companies were increasing spending on artificial intelligence. Josh Gilbert, lead analyst for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East at multi-asset investment platform eToro, believes the controversy surrounding Huang will also cast a shadow over Nvidia shares.

He noted that although the board supports Huang, the investigation is not over. Until its outcome becomes clear, investors must factor in the risk of further repercussions.

However, Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, said markets typically price in uncertainty when a company’s chief executive faces an internal investigation. In Nvidia’s case, Trump’s public support for Huang, together with unchanged underlying demand for artificial intelligence hardware, should help technology stocks absorb the news.

Waterer believes that although the controversy has damaged the reputations of Nvidia and Huang, its impact appears confined to the company for now and has yet to become a systemic issue.

Anna Wu, founder of research firm Floodlines Research, also believes the controversy is primarily a short-term news risk and will not become a major driver of Nvidia’s share price.

She said the market was more focused on the sell-off in chip stocks following the US midterm elections, as well as the company’s third-quarter results for its 2027 fiscal year, due on Tuesday (17 November).