“I doubt Jensen Huang will be able to remain as Nvidia CEO. This could put short-term pressure on the stock of the second most valuable company in the world,” said Gary Black, a Tesla investor who manages money for The Future Fund Llc, as quoted by Reuters.
“He has no natural successor within the company. While he has not committed any crime or tort, his code of conduct and judgment will be called into question, which will likely result in his removal.”
Black said that many portfolio managers will likely reduce their Nvidia holdings in the coming weeks as a result of uncertainty over who could succeed Jensen.
Nvidia stocks dipped over 4% Monday following Jensen’s letter on Sunday admitting to an extramarital affair. Jensen’s wealth plunged by $6.8 billion on Monday, the largest decline in the world.
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Co-founder, President and CEO of US technology company Nvidia, Jensen Huang, looks on during a press briefing in Paris on October 13, 2026. Photo by AFP |
The New York Times first reported that the alleged mistress, Alice Huang (no relation to Jensen), was a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security, citing people briefed on intelligence circulated within the Donald Trump administration.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington dismissed the allegations in late October as “groundless smears and slanders.”
Nvidia says Jensen will remain in charge during the investigation, but pressure is mounting on the chipmaker, whose technology has powered the first four years of the generative AI boom.
“I am not suggesting he gets a free pass. If indeed this is more than an affair, then it is obviously a real problem,” said Bill Ackman, CEO of investment holding company Pershing Square.
Ackman said Jensen has done a lot of good for the world. “I am hoping for a simple affair, not a risk to our national security.”
Jensen, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993, wields considerable influence at the company and is its sole public face, with no clear second-in-command.
“The issue at Nvidia is that there is no clear successor to Jensen, and we had expected him to stay in this role for at least 10 more years,” Melius Research analysts wrote in a note Monday.
“Jensen is Nvidia. Nvidia is Jensen,” Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon told CNBC. Huang “runs the thing pretty much top down” and “sort of pulls all the strings,” he added.
Nvidia has long operated with a flat management structure. Jensen is closely involved in day-to-day operations and frequently represents the company before world leaders and at industry conferences. He said earlier that as many as 60 people reported directly to him.
But he has relatively little formal control compared with other tech founders such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and SpaceX’s Elon Musk. He owns just over 3% of Nvidia’s outstanding shares and is one of 11 directors on a board without an official chair.
Timm Schulze-Melander, an analyst at Rothschild & Co. Redburn, wrote in a note Monday that Huang could be forced to step aside as CEO if the board finds “something materially more serious” than an undisclosed relationship.
Schulze-Melander said the investigation could still end with Huang in charge, given the importance of his leadership to Nvidia.
Other analysts said the investigation could prompt changes to Nvidia’s governance, including a contingency plan for a leadership transition.
“This boardroom storm has landed at a brutal time for the AI trade, but Nvidia’s earnings on Nov. 17 are the real next test,” said Josh Gilbert, lead analyst at investment platform Etoro.
“While the investigation is likely to dent sentiment, it won’t alter anything long-term, unless it leads to a change at the top, at which point it becomes a completely different ball game.”