Nvidia’s $350B wobble: a GPU boss, a spy probe and China’s “smears” counterattack

Nvidia shares plunged as much as 8% on Monday, briefly threatening to erase roughly $350 billion in market value after the company’s board opened an independent investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by a Chinese intelligence operation. The board announced the review on Sunday, November 8, 2026, saying a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, would examine all available information. “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 said. The board also “has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team.”

The investigation followed a Financial Times report that cited a U.S. government memo written earlier this year and based on intelligence information. The memo said Huang had been romantically involved with Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese citizen and former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed International, which buys high-end Nvidia chips. U.S. intelligence believes Alice Huang was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security. Huang admitted in an employee message that he had been unfaithful to his wife, apologized and pledged to cooperate, while Nvidia said his interactions with her were “not unusual or unexpected” and that customers such as Megaspeed receive “ordinary business information.”

Lawmakers from both parties are seeking answers. Republican leaders asked Huang to appear privately before the House China, foreign affairs and intelligence committees, while Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), who will chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from January, said in a tweet that “Congress will investigate and get answers.” A New York Times investigation reported that President Donald Trump was briefed on the findings roughly a year ago and chose not to act on them. U.S. officials also suspected Megaspeed of helping Chinese companies circumvent restrictions on advanced AI chips, and the Commerce Department’s investigation into the company was handed to the Justice Department.

China rejected the allegations during a regular Foreign Ministry press briefing on Monday. Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said, “The so-called Chinese spy allegation is unsubstantiated. It’s just smears against China,” and denied reports that Beijing sought information through Huang. China’s embassy in Washington dismissed the allegations as “groundless smears and slanders.” Megaspeed retained outside counsel for an internal investigation, while Alice Huang did not respond to newspaper requests for comment.

Nvidia’s market capitalization had already fallen from roughly $5.78 trillion on October 6 to $4.51 trillion by November 6, according to YCharts, a decline of approximately $1.27 trillion before the investigation was announced. A November 6 snapshot placed Nvidia at 6.93% of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF; a 5.6% decline in Nvidia alone would subtract approximately 0.39 percentage points from the S&P 500’s performance, assuming everything else remained unchanged. The S&P 500 rose 1.48% on Monday morning and the Nasdaq gained 1.87%, while Nvidia was down about 5% in premarket trading.

Huang, 63, has led Nvidia since co-founding it in 1993. Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone, told Reuters he did not expect Huang to resign, but said an imminent departure could trigger an “absolute bloodbath” in the stock. Separately, trade records cited by The New York Times showed that Megaspeed’s sister company in Malaysia bought at least $4.8 billion worth of AI equipment containing Nvidia chips between June 2024 and February 2026. The allegations have not established that Huang disclosed sensitive information or knowingly cooperated with foreign intelligence.