Nvidia tumbles early amid questions about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s future

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Nvidia, the chipmaker at the center of the global artificial intelligence boom, tumbled early Thursday with the tenure of CEO Jensen Huang threatened by revelations of an affair with a woman reported to be a suspected Chinese spy.

The company’s stock has been under pressure for weeks, both because of reporting about the affair and questions about a potential bubble in the AI sector.

Shares slid 7% to $161.37 before the opening bell, 34% below the company’s all-time high reached just over a month ago.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Huang had a second affair with an Nvidia executive who reports to him, and analysts said that may force the board to oust him.

“What seemed impossible a week ago is now a reality as we cannot see Jensen running Nvidia as CEO at this point and the stock/company should be valued without him as CEO,” wrote Dan Ives, partner and senior managing director at Yorkville Ives & Co.

Nvidia is now valued at more than $4 trillion and has been a major driver in the technology sector. It is one of the reasons the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite index raced higher for most of this year and also part of the reason the index has slumped 7% in the past month.

As the crisis unfolds at Nvidia, shares of rivals like AMD, Advanced Micro Devices, and Broadcom have moved sharply higher.

CoreWeave, however slid nearly 9%. Nvidia owns a stake of approximately 13% in the a data center and cloud company.