Nvidia’s board met late Wednesday to consider Chief Executive Jensen Huang’s future at the company, CNBC and NBC News reported, as the chipmaker’s shares fell nearly 9% in after-hours trading.
CNBC said it confirmed that directors were meeting to decide whether to oust Huang after reports of two extramarital relationships. NBC News, citing two people familiar with the matter, said the session was underway Wednesday evening. The Wall Street Journal first reported the meeting, NBC News said. Nvidia had not issued a public statement as of late Wednesday, the BBC reported.
Shares dropped more than 9% in post-market trading after the Journal reported that the board was preparing to force Huang out, CNBC said. NBC News reported an almost 9% decline and said that if the move held through Thursday’s opening bell, it would erase more than $350 billion in market value. Other chipmakers, including Intel, Qualcomm and ARM Holdings, also fell after hours, NBC News reported, and Nasdaq futures were lower as of 9:40 p.m. Eastern.
The decline followed a New York Times report Wednesday that Huang had a romantic relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reported to him. NBC News said it had not independently confirmed the Times account.
The Times article came after Huang told employees on Sunday that he had been unfaithful to his wife. “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did,” Huang wrote, according to CNBC and the BBC. NBC News and The New York Times have reported that he had a relationship with a woman named Alice Huang, whom U.S. intelligence officials believe is a Chinese intelligence operative. China has denied the allegations, NBC News reported. Nvidia’s board has opened an independent investigation and hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to examine the spying allegations, CNBC reported.
Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has led the company since, NBC News reported. The BBC described Nvidia as the world’s second-most-valuable company, after Apple, and a central supplier of chips used in artificial intelligence.