Abstract:
On the evening of November 12, Nvidia founder Huang Jensen resigned from the company’s CEO, president and director positions due to extramarital affairs. At the same time, Nvidia’s stock price continues to be under pressure. According to the latest public shareholding data, since the relevant incident was first exposed on October 29, the book market value of Nvidia shares held by Huang Renxun and its affiliated entities has shrunk by approximately US$40.7 billion, equivalent to approximately 271.7 billion yuan.
Nvidia announced on November 12 that Jen-Hsun Huang’s resignation will take effect immediately, and current Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO and continue to serve as CFO. Long-time director Harvey C. Jones has been appointed as the company's first chairman, and the board will simultaneously initiate a search for a permanent CEO.
This news triggered sharp fluctuations in Nvidia's stock price. When U.S. stocks opened on November 12, Nvidia was trading at $151.01, a sharp drop from the previous trading day's closing price of $173.73, and then rebounded. As of 10:41 a.m. EST that day, the stock price rebounded to $165.19, up 9.39% from the opening, but still down 4.92% from the previous trading day's closing price.
According to Huang Renxun’s shareholding change document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in September 2026, he and related family trusts and holding entities hold a total of approximately 811.5 million Nvidia shares.
Based on this calculation, when Nvidia opened on November 12, the book market value of Huang Renxun’s related holdings was approximately US$18.44 billion less than the closing price of the previous trading day. As the stock price rebounded from its opening low, as of 10:41 EST, the value of this part of the related holdings had rebounded by approximately US$11.51 billion, but it still shrank by approximately US$6.93 billion from the previous trading day's closing price.
If you stretch the time period to before the scandal was first publicly reported, the damage is even more obvious.
On October 29, the New York Times revealed that Jen-Hsun Huang has a close relationship with a Chinese businesswoman who has attracted the attention of U.S. intelligence agencies, drawing attention to Nvidia's business relationships and U.S. chip export controls. Since then, the incident has continued to ferment. On November 8, Huang Renxun publicly admitted that he had an extramarital affair and apologized to his family, employees and shareholders. NVIDIA's board of directors subsequently announced the launch of an independent investigation.
Based on NVIDIA's closing price of US$215.38 on October 28, to US$165.19 at 10:41 am on November 12, NVIDIA has fallen by approximately 23.3%. Based on an estimate of 811.5 million shares, the book market value of Huang Renxun’s related holdings has decreased by approximately US$40.73 billion.
If Jen-Hsun Huang publicly admitted his extramarital affair on November 8 as a starting point, and based on the closing price of US$186.64 on November 6, the last trading day, as of 10:41 a.m. on November 12, the value of the relevant stock holdings had shrunk by approximately US$17.41 billion.
It should be noted that the above figures are changes in book market value calculated based on the number of publicly held shares and market prices, and do not mean that Huang Renxun actually sold stocks and incurred losses of the same amount. In addition, the relevant holdings include shares held by family trusts and other entities, which cannot all be regarded as assets that can be freely disposed by individuals. NVIDIA's stock price was also affected by multiple factors such as the valuation of the artificial intelligence industry and market risk appetite during the same period. The entire decline cannot be simply attributed to the extramarital affair.
Regarding this incident, Huang Renxun previously stated that he would cooperate with the independent investigation of the board of directors.
Since co-founding Nvidia in 1993, Huang has served as CEO for a long time, leading the company's transformation from a graphics chip manufacturer to an important supplier of global artificial intelligence computing power. His departure also caused Nvidia to face one of the most significant management changes in its 33 years of existence.
When announcing the personnel changes, NVIDIA's board of directors stated that it has full confidence in Kress and the existing management team, and does not expect that the company's normal operations, customer commitments and product roadmap will be interrupted.
However, for investors, what needs to be watched next is not only whether management can maintain business operations, but also whether Nvidia can continue to maintain its competitive advantage in the artificial intelligence chip market after losing its long-term core leader.
According to the arrangement, Nvidia will announce its third quarter financial report for fiscal year 2027 on November 17. By then, how the interim management team responds to market doubts about the company's strategy, customer relationships and management stability will become the focus of attention from the outside world.
Comments