SANTA CLARA — Nvidia Corporation's board of directors launched an independent inquiry into claims that Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation after Huang publicly acknowledged an extramarital affair.
Nvidia shares tumbled more than 8 per cent as United States equity markets opened on Monday. The sharp selloff wiped out billions in valuation, clearing the path for Microsoft Corporation to overtake Nvidia on Tuesday as the world’s second-most valuable public company. Total losses have now deepened to 14 per cent since November 3.
Yet the governance storm is widening rapidly. An investor filed a lawsuit against both Nvidia and Huang, accusing executives of misleading shareholders in their initial public responses to media reports detailing the scandal.
While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board's inquiry will examine all available information.
Nvidia Corporate Statement
Panic across trading desks reflects Huang’s outsized grip on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Disruption at the Santa Clara chipmaker reverberates instantly across enterprise tech and sovereign balance sheets worldwide.
But the operational stakes remain colossal. Under Huang, Nvidia transformed from a graphics processor designer into the engine room of global machine learning, backing multi-billion-dollar buildouts including a guarantee of up to $105 billion for OpenAI's Ohio data centre operations.
Nvidia's hardware dominates every tier of high-performance computing. Chipmakers measure generative artificial intelligence capacity in H100-equivalent units—a universal performance yardstick anchored directly to Nvidia’s flagship silicon.
Nvidia controlled 63 per cent of global compute capacity in the second quarter of 2026, according to research organization EPOCH AI. Alphabet subsidiary Google trailed in second place, securing a 25.4 per cent share with its custom tensor processing units.
The financial disparity is even wider. Nvidia collected an estimated $66.1 billion in second-quarter AI chip revenue alone, cornering 81.2 per cent of total global sales. Google ranked second by generating $7.9 billion, representing a 9.7 per cent share.
| AI Compute & Revenue Metric (Q2 2026) | Nvidia | Remaining Market | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Global AI Compute Capacity (H100-Equiv.) | 63.0% | 25.4% | 11.6% | EPOCH AI |
| AI Chip Sales Value | $66.1 Billion | $7.9 Billion | $7.4 Billion | Industry Benchmarks |
| Global AI Chip Revenue Share | 81.2% | 9.7% |
Before the selloff, Nvidia's balance sheet swelled past the economic output of industrial powers. On November 1, its market capitalisation touched $4.94 trillion.
Based on International Monetary Fund estimates for 2026, Nvidia stood larger than the entire nominal gross domestic products of Japan ($4.44 trillion), the United Kingdom, and India. The corporate titan effectively trailed only the United States, China, and Germany in total economic scale.
Market Context: A prolonged leadership distraction at Nvidia threatens broader technology capital expenditure across Silicon Valley, where hyperscalers rely almost exclusively on Huang's supply lines to feed multi-gigawatt cloud clusters.
Legal counsel for the board will continue reviewing internal communications and overseas travel logs as the independent intelligence probe unfolds, while the United States District Court prepares to schedule initial hearings on the investor class-action petition.
| 9.1% |
| Hardware Sales Registry |
| OpenAI Ohio Buildout Guarantee | Up to $105 Billion | — | — | Regulatory Disclosures |