Analysts say a second affair reported by the Times may force an ouster
Nvidia shares slid 7% to $161.37 in trading before the opening bell Thursday, leaving the stock 34% below its all-time high, which it reached just over a month ago. The selloff came with the tenure of CEO Jensen Huang threatened by revelations of an affair with a woman reported to be a suspected Chinese spy.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Huang had a second affair with an Nvidia executive who reports to him, and analysts said the disclosure may force Nvidia’s board to oust him. The board was meeting to discuss Huang’s future, according to the Associated Press.
“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’s stock has been under pressure for weeks, both because of reporting about the affair and because of questions about a potential bubble in the AI sector.
The company is valued at more than $4 trillion and has been a major driver in the technology sector. Nvidia is one of the reasons the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index raced higher for most of this year — and part of the reason the index has slumped 7% in the past month.
The NASDAQ Composite Index stood at 25,466.19 as of Nov. 12, according to the Federal Reserve Economic Data series maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Shares of rivals Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom have moved sharply higher while Nvidia’s stock has been under pressure.
CoreWeave, a data center and cloud company in which Nvidia owns a stake of approximately 13%, slid nearly 9%.