Jensen Huang: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang slipped to 10th place on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people after his net worth plummeted by $7.4 billion on Monday. The drop followed a sharp drop in the company’s share price amid an investigation into its relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.
Jensen Huang Suffers $7.4 Billion Wealth Loss
Huang’s net worth fell from $162.2 billion to $154.7 billion in the first half hour of trading, pushing him down two spots from No. 8 to No. 10 on Forbes’ real-time billionaires ranking, according to a Forbes report. He briefly fell out of the top 10 after Nvidia shares opened down more than 7%, wiping $10.3 billion off his fortune.
Nvidia shares fell 5.5% as of 1:30 pm EST, after falling as much as 7% in premarket trading. This was the first trading session since the company confirmed an investigation into Huang. The development also put him below Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison in the billionaire rankings.
The fall in Nvidia shares also hit the company\’s market value. Its market capitalisation dropped from $4.5 trillion. Nvidia has frequently competed with Apple for the position of the world\’s most valuable publicly traded company.
The share price decline followed Huang’s admission on Sunday that he had an affair. In a statement to employees, he apologised for his actions and said he supported the company\’s investigation.Nvidia\’s board said it had appointed a committee of independent directors, along with external legal counsel, to examine all available information. However, it added that it had “no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised.”
The investigation follows a report by The New York Times last month that US intelligence agencies had identified a close relationship between Huang and Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen suspected by Washington of gathering information for Beijing.
Allegation against Alice Huang
According to The New York Times, Alice Huang was recruited by Beijing\’s top spy agency to collect information on Jensen Huang for China\’s ministry of state security. The report cited a memo circulated within the Trump administration. It is unclear when the two first met. However, they were photographed together in a bar in June 2024.
Trump defends Nvidia boss
US intelligence officials had informed President Donald Trump of their findings about Alice Huang about a year ago, the New York Times reported. However, Trump took no action at the time.
An Nvidia spokesperson previously told the newspaper that “Jensen’s interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected,” adding that meeting with customers was part of his job.