Nvidia stock falls as board reportedly weighs ousting CEO Huang

Nvidia shares fell about 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday, and are down about 11% over the past five days, as The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia’s board is moving to remove Jensen Huang, who co-founded the chipmaker and has run it for 33 years, from the CEO post. Sources told the Journal that Nvidia’s board could meet as early as Wednesday to decide Huang’s future at the company.

The potential ouster follows a fast-moving scandal. On Sunday, Huang admitted to an extramarital affair with a woman whom U.S. intelligence has purported to be a Chinese spy. Then, on Wednesday night, The New York Times said Huang had also had an affair with a company executive who answers directly to him.

Nvidia has grown into one of the world’s most valuable companies by designing the chips powering the AI boom, but its stock has slid alongside the scandal. Huang, who famously delegates little and has said he has about 60 direct reports, has no obvious successor, and the company has no announced succession plan.

Why it matters

A stock slide of about 11% in under a week, alongside no clear successor, raises the question of how much personal-scandal risk investors will tolerate at a company whose AI-chip dominance has made it one of the most valuable in the world — and whether Nvidia’s board can replace a leader who has run it for 33 years on short notice.