Markets
Nvidia Sank 8.6% Late as Its Board Weighed Ousting Huang
Nvidia fell about 8.6% after hours on November 11, 2026, after the Wall Street Journal reported its board was preparing to remove CEO Jensen Huang.
For about six hours on Wednesday, Nvidia looked as if it had found a floor. The shares rose 2.87% in regular trading to $173.73, snapping a two-day losing streak, as chip stocks rallied behind CoreWeave's results. Then the Wall Street Journal reported that the company's board was preparing to oust Jensen Huang, the co-founder who has run Nvidia since 1993, and could meet as soon as that evening to decide. By 8 p.m. in New York the stock was down 8.61% in after-hours trading, according to StockTitan's tally.
The report landed on top of a second one. The New York Times said on Wednesday that Huang, 63, had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, the Nvidia vice president who runs its healthcare business. On Sunday Huang had admitted in a message to employees that he had been "unfaithful to his wife", after reports linked him to Alice Huang, an executive at the Singapore data-centre company Megaspeed whom US intelligence officials had deemed a Chinese agent, according to Fortune. China called the allegations baseless. The board had opened an independent investigation and said it had "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised."
What worries investors is the gap Huang would leave. Fortune noted that Nvidia has no board chair, no chief operating officer and no named successor, and that about 60 executives report directly to Huang. Bloomberg reported that the company is working with an outside firm to identify candidates; chief financial officer Colette Kress and lead independent director Stephen Neal have been mentioned as possible interim leaders. Baird cut the stock to Neutral on Wednesday, citing the uncertainty over the CEO's tenure, possible government action and a congressional hearing. Republicans in Congress have asked Huang to attend a closed-door briefing on November 18.
The business itself is not the issue, at least not yet. Revenue in the first half of the fiscal year was $96 billion, up 85%, and Seaport Research analyst Jay Goldberg told Fortune that Nvidia's products remain sold out and contracted into next year. But the stock had already closed about 27% below its record of $239.24 on October 6, and Yahoo Finance put the loss in market value since the affair became public at about $700 billion.
Nvidia did not comment on the board meeting, and no decision had been announced by early Thursday in Asia. The next fixed date is the company's quarterly report, due on November 17. Until then the shares are likely to trade on boardroom headlines rather than on chip demand, which is unusual for the largest company in the S&P 500 and a reminder that an index fund can carry the risk of one person.