CALIFORNIA : Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saw his net worth plunge by $7.4 billion within the first 30 minutes of Monday’s trading session, dropping him two spots to 10th on ‘Forbes’ real-time billionaire rankings. The sharp wealth decline came as Nvidia shares tumbled following the company’s confirmation of an internal investigation into Huang’s personal relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.
Huang’s net worth fell from $162.2 billion to $154.7 billion shortly after the market opened, briefly pushing him completely out of the top 10 as Nvidia stock plummeted over 7% in early trades. The slump erased billions in market capitalization from the AI chipmaker, bringing its total value down to around $4.29 trillion. The shift also saw Huang fall behind Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison on the global wealth index.
The sell-off followed Huang’s Sunday admission to employees that he had an extramarital affair. In a internal memo, Huang apologized for his conduct and pledged full cooperation with the board’s independent review committee and external legal counsel. Nvidia’s board emphasized that while it is conducting a thorough inquiry, it has “no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised.”
The scrutiny intensified following a report revealing that U.S. intelligence services had flagged a close relationship between Huang and Alice Huang, a Chinese national suspected by Washington of gathering intelligence for Beijing. Alice Huang formerly listed as managing director of Singapore based neocloud firm Megaspeed has links to several high profile AI hardware executives across Asia. Megaspeed, a spin-off of Chinese firm 7Road, distributes Nvidia technology in the Asia-Pacific region and has been under U.S. Department of Commerce scrutiny since 2024 over potential chip export violations.
Despite the intelligence briefing delivered to the White House last year, U.S. President Donald Trump defended the Nvidia chief on Sunday night calling him an “honorable guy” and confirming that Huang will still accompany him on an upcoming diplomatic trip to China.
