Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is no longer among the world’s 10 richest people, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth has been declining along with Nvidia’s share price, and recent revelations about a potential “foreign intelligence effort” targeting him have pushed the stock lower.
Nvidia stock fell 9% on Monday before ending 4.3% lower at $178.67 per share. Huang’s net worth dropped $6.5 billion to $148 billion, ranking him as the world’s 12th wealthiest person after markets closed on Monday — one spot below Rob Walton, the former Walmart chair. Huang was 10th when markets closed on Friday, and as recently as October, he was ranked 7th, with a net worth roughly $60 billion higher.
Huang’s net worth is closely tied to Nvidia’s stock, as he owns over 870 million shares. The company’s stock has been hit hard by the recent tech sell-off, dropping 21% over the past month and nearly 27% from its October 6 peak of $243.37.
The tech sell-off has been driven by investor worries about the development of AI infrastructure. This concern was sparked by cloud companies’ high debt levels and the election of several Democrats who have spoken out against data center construction.
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Monday’s Nvidia slide was triggered by the company’s board of directors opening an investigation into whether Huang was targeted by a “foreign intelligence effort.” Huang also sent a note to staff apologizing for being “unfaithful” to his wife of over 40 years, Lori Huang.
A recent New York Times report stated that American intelligence agencies found Huang had a close relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company. US officials suspected her company was steering Nvidia’s advanced AI chips to China and concluded that she was a Chinese intelligence asset.
As Nvidia’s longtime CEO, Huang is seen as instrumental to the firm’s success, and investors are likely pricing in the risk that the board’s investigation could trigger his departure from Nvidia.
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