Nvidia Closes Down 4.3% After Falling as Much as 9% as Congress Sets Nov. 18 Briefing on Huang

Since the Nvidia board announced Sunday that it was opening an independent investigation into CEO Jensen Huang, the stock has had its first full trading session under that cloud. It closed Monday, Nov. 9, at $178.67, down $7.97, or 4.3%. That is a smaller loss than the early-session slide of as much as 9%.

The drop trimmed Nvidia's market value by about $193 billion, leaving it at roughly $4.5 trillion and the world's second most valuable company. The stock is down 22% over the past month and 5% for the year.

What Huang and the board have said

Huang told staff in a Sunday memo that he was "unfaithful" to his wife, Lori, to whom he has been married for more than 40 years. "My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry," he wrote. "I support the investigation and will cooperate fully."

The board said a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, will run the inquiry. It said it has "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised." It also said it has confidence in Huang.

An Nvidia spokesperson told CBS News that "Jensen is committed to continuing to lead Nvidia as CEO without interruption." The company did not answer a question about whether Huang violated any corporate policy. Spokesperson John Rizzo said Sunday: "We trust that if we were the target of a genuine threat, the U.S. government would have notified us."

The allegation

The New York Times reported late last month that U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, was a Chinese intelligence asset. She is a former managing director at Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based data center company that does business with Nvidia. The two are not related. According to the Times, the conclusion rested on electronic surveillance and was laid out in a spring memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio warning administration officials about the relationship.

China rejects it. Foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun called the claim "entirely baseless" and said it "constitutes slander and smear." Megaspeed has previously denied allegations that it diverted Nvidia chips to China, saying inspections by Nvidia and U.S. officials found "no evidence" of violations. Neither Megaspeed nor Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs had responded to requests for comment as of Monday, a holiday in Singapore.

No charges have been announced against anyone.

Public records of the relationship go back years. Photos show the two together in Taipei as early as June 2024. Video from a May 2025 Computex dinner hosted by Huang shows him with his arm around her.

Short seller Culper Research flagged Megaspeed in a May 2026 report. It alleged the company was financed by Alibaba through apparent shell companies, and cited a Megaspeed employee who described the firm's relationship with Huang as "very close." Those are the short seller's allegations, and Megaspeed denies wrongdoing.

Washington's response

The Republican chairs of the House Select Committee on China, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Intelligence Committee asked Huang last week to appear at a closed-door briefing on Nov. 18. Reps. Brian Mast, John Moolenaar and Rick Crawford wrote that "it is vital that Congress determines the extent to which U.S. national security has been placed at risk." They want answers on Nvidia's security protocols against espionage and on his interactions with Alice Huang.

Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said Monday he is pushing for an investigation. He also said lawmakers need answers about "the relationship between AI billionaires and the Trump administration." Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for investigations and legislation "to stop advanced AI chips from fueling China's military."

President Trump has taken a different line. Asked Sunday whether Huang should remain CEO, he said, "Sure." He added: "I think he's an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it." He said he had not spoken to Huang about it and added, "You never know what is going on." He said he would be open to taking Huang on his upcoming Asia trip. "I haven't heard he's done anything wrong," Trump said. "He dealt with somebody, but you know, so does everybody else."

Why the stock fell, and what analysts say

The sell-off did not happen in isolation. Tech stocks have been under pressure on worries that AI infrastructure will be built more slowly than hoped. Those worries stem from the heavy debt loads at neocloud firms and from Democratic gains in the midterms, which could slow data center construction. Nadia El Bilassy of Equiti Group said the Huang news was "the cherry on top for investors looking to pull out of AI-linked stocks." The broader market rallied Monday.

Analysts focused on the key-man problem. Stacy Rasgon of Bernstein said, "Jensen is Nvidia. Nvidia is Jensen." Melius Research noted there is "no clear successor," and said it had expected Huang to stay in the role "for at least 10 more years." Huang is 63, has around 60 direct reports, and is also Nvidia's president.

Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives wrote that "there is clearly risk that Jensen could be removed as CEO depending on the board investigation." Mohamed El-Erian said it is "doubtful markets have adequately priced" the key-man risk. Bernstein, which keeps an outperform rating and a $400 price target, said the matter is unlikely to hurt product demand. It called it a potential "heavy distraction" and, at worst, "significant ammunition" for lawmakers in both parties.

China policy looms over the story

Huang has lobbied for years to sell more AI chips into China. In a mid-October interview with Fortune, before the Times report, he said Nvidia "could be of great service" to China's market. After meetings with Huang last year, the Trump administration reversed restrictions on the H20 and allowed exports of the more powerful H200. China made up $7.9 billion, roughly 8%, of Nvidia's revenue in the quarter ended July 26.

TechCrunch noted that his lobbying predates the reported early-2024 meeting with Alice Huang. The U.S. intelligence assessment is that she was tasked with influencing Nvidia's push to loosen export limits.

Huang's Nvidia stake lost as much as $13 billion in value early Monday, to about $138 billion, according to Business Insider's calculation. Bloomberg had put his net worth at $155 billion at Friday's close.

The next fixed date is Nov. 18, when the three House committees want Huang in a closed room. Whether he appears, and what the board's independent directors find, will decide whether the "no interruption" promise holds.