Nvidia market value sinks below US$4 trillion after CEO Jensen Huang resigns

• Nvidia’s market value fell below US$4 trillion after CEO Jensen Huang resigned over two affairs, including one with a suspected Chinese spy. The shares dropped as much as 14%.
• The stock has fallen about 35% from its October peak, wiping out up to US$601 billion in one day. Colette Kress is interim CEO, and Harvey Jones is the first chairman.
• The scandal comes before Tuesday’s earnings report and has shaken faith in the AI trade. At least seven Wall Street firms have downgraded Nvidia, and debt protection costs neared a record.

NEW YORK - Nvidia’s stock plunged at the open on Thursday, taking the chipmaker’s market capitalisation below US$4 trillion for the first time since 2025, after chief executive officer Jensen Huang resigned following the revelation of two affairs, one with a suspected Chinese spy.

The shares were down as much as 14% in early trading, dropping to their lowest since June 2025, erasing as much as US$601 billion in market value. If that holds through the close, it will be the largest one-day market capitalisation wipeout for any stock ever.

The stock has shed roughly 35% from a record hit in early October, cutting its market value by US$2 trillion in a matter of week. Nvidia was the biggest company in the world just a few weeks ago, but at less than US$3.8 trillion it is currently below Apple and Microsoft.

“I’ve never seen something quite like this, so we’re in new territory,” said Ted Mortonson, technology strategist at Robert W. Baird & Co. “On a scale of one to 10, this is a 10.”

Huang’s ability to stay at the helm of the most important artificial intelligence chipmaker has been under scrutiny since Sunday, when he admitted to a romantic relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at the Singapore data centre firm Megaspeed International who is suspected of spying for China.

Then on Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Huang also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice-president of healthcare, citing unidentified people who worked at the company.

Nvidia announced Huang’s departure before the market opened on Thursday, naming chief financial officer Colette Kress interim CEO and board member Harvey Jones as its first-ever chairman.

The news comes ahead of Nvidia’s third-quarter earnings report on Tuesday. The company expected to show strong growth amid robust demand for AI chips, but the scandals are causing investors and analysts to flee the stock, with at least seven Wall Street firms downgrading Nvidia over the past week.

Meanwhile, the cost of protecting the firm’s debt against default neared a record.

The questions surrounding Huang added to growing concerns about the strength and longevity of the AI trade overall. Quarterly results from major Nvidia customers like Alphabet, Amazon.com and Meta Platforms underscored how investors are losing patience with big spending on AI, especially as it turns cash flows negative. 

At the same time, the US midterm elections showed many voters oppose building data centres anywhere near their communities, further clouding the outlook for spending, which translates to revenue at chipmakers and other companies involved in AI infrastructure.

Nvidia is down 15% in 2026, on track for its worst year since 2022. In contrast, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index is up 47% this year. BLOOMBERG