Shares in Nvidia slumped early Monday morning after CEO Jensen Huang admitted an affair and the company's board launched a probe into that relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.
Why it matters:The global AI economy revolves around a few companies, Nvidia most prominent among them.
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Very little of consequence happens in AI without Nvidia's involvement, and that usually means the imprint of Jensen Huang himself.
By the numbers:Nvidia shares were off 4.4% in premarket trading as of 5:15 a.m. ET Monday, on a day that tech stocks were otherwise broadly higher.
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That would represent a loss of about $199 billion in regular trading.
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It's a relatively small move for the world's second-largest company by market capitalization — but a blow nonetheless to investors.
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Through Friday, the stock had already lost 13% of its value since the initial reports that the U.S. government was concerned about Jensen Huang's relationship with Asian tech executive Alice Huang.
Stunning stat:Monday's move would be the equivalent of a $7.1 billion hit to Huang personally.
What to watch:Given how central Nvidia is to the AI ecosystem, its weakness could reverberate in coming days.
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"This is a black eye moment for Jensen and will spark multiple congressional inquiries at a minimum and will create an overhang," noted AI bull and Wall Street tech analyst Dan Ives posted to X.
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