Nvidia's shares plunged as much as 14% in early trading on Thursday, wiping as much as $601 billion off the chipmaker's market value and dragging its valuation below $4 trillion for the first time since July 2025 — hours after co-founder Jensen Huang resigned as chief executive.
The stock opened at $151.01, down sharply from Wednesday's close of $173.73, and touched a low of $148.80, its lowest level since June 2025. It later recovered some ground, trading around $164 by late morning in New York, roughly 5% lower.
Huang, 63, resigned on Thursday as president, chief executive and a member of the board, effective immediately, after reports of two extramarital affairs, one with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive US officials suspect of spying for China. Chief financial officer Colette Kress is serving as interim chief executive while the board searches for a permanent successor, and Harvey Jones has been named the company's first board chairman.
A brutal week for the AI chip giant
The sell-off caps a brutal stretch for Nvidia. The company has lost about $300 billion in market value since its board announced an investigation on Sunday into whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation, according to Reuters. The shares are now about 35% below the record they hit in early October, erasing roughly $2 trillion in weeks. The stock is down about 15% in 2026, on course for its worst year since 2022.
Analysts moved fast. Bernstein downgraded the stock and halved its price target from $400 to $200. Short sellers have made about $3.8 billion in paper profits since the scandal broke, a figure Ortex puts at about $6.8 billion with the share price at $163. Nvidia now trades at about 12 times forward earnings, its lowest since November 2012, per LSEG.
Singapore bars Alice Huang
Singapore said on Thursday it had barred Alice Huang from re-entering the country. The city-state's home affairs ministry said she left Singapore in February after an investigation launched in February 2025 into possible offences, including the purchase of servers exported via Singapore to Malaysia without entering the Singapore market.
Police concluded there was insufficient evidence to establish that she had committed any offences, but said she had given them information she knew to be inaccurate and had downplayed her role at Megaspeed. She was issued a stern warning and barred from returning. The ministry stressed the investigation did not concern espionage, and said inquiries into Megaspeed and six individuals were continuing. She is now living in Beijing, Bloomberg reported.
US officials have concluded Alice Huang is a Chinese intelligence asset, the New York Times reported, and Megaspeed is under US investigation over claims it helped Chinese firms dodge export controls.
Washington turns up the pressure
In Washington, the scandal is already reshaping the debate over chip exports. House Speaker Mike Johnson said there was growing support in Congress for restricting semiconductor exports to China, following the scandal that ended Huang's 33-year run at Nvidia's helm.
Huang had been the industry's loudest voice for looser export rules; his exit removes the strongest advocate for selling American AI chips into China. The Justice Department is running several probes touching on Alice Huang, according to the Wall Street Journal, and President Donald Trump said on Monday that the FBI was examining the relationship.
Attention now turns to next Tuesday, when Nvidia reports third-quarter results as scheduled. It will be Kress's first public test as interim chief, and the board's first chance to signal who leads the company next.
