How NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang lost $7.4B in 30 minutes
What's the story
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's net worth took a massive hit on Monday, plunging by $7.4 billion within just half an hour of trading. The fall was triggered by a sharp decline in the company's share price, following news of an investigation into Huang's ties with an alleged Chinese spy. His wealth fell from $162.2 billion to $154.7 billion, according to Forbes's real-time billionaire rankings.
Market impact
Investigation into Huang's ties with Alice
Huang's net worth took a major hit as NVIDIA shares opened over 7% lower on Monday.
The dip erased $10.3 billion from his fortune, briefly pushing him out of the top 10 in Forbes's billionaire rankings.
This was the first trading session since the company confirmed an investigation into Huang's ties with Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen suspected by Washington of gathering information for Beijing.
Spy allegations
US intelligence flagged connection between Jensen and Alice Huang
The investigation comes after The New York Times reported last month that US intelligence agencies had flagged a close connection between Jensen and Alice Huang.
She was allegedly recruited by Beijing's top spy agency to collect information on him for China's Ministry of State Security.
It remains unclear when the two first met, but they were photographed together at a bar in June 2024.
Business ties
Alice Huang linked to other AI chip industry leaders
Alice has also been linked to other AI chip industry leaders, including those at Gigabyte, which builds NVIDIA supercomputers.
She has described herself as the chief executive of Singapore-based neocloud and AI computing services provider Megaspeed.
Megaspeed, established in 2023 after Chinese gaming and cloud computing company 7Road spun off its overseas operations in Singapore, partners with NVIDIA and supplies its technology across Asia-Pacific.
Ongoing probe
US authorities probing Megaspeed
US authorities have been probing Megaspeed's possible role in China's access to NVIDIA chips since 2024.
A Commerce Department official found NVIDIA equipment still packed at a data center site in Malaysia, raising concerns it could be shipped elsewhere.
The investigation comes as NVIDIA prepares to announce its quarterly earnings next Tuesday after market close.