US stocks surged on Monday, but Nvidia fell as its board launched an independent investigation into CEO Jensen Huang’s relationship with a woman identified by US intelligence as a Chinese spy.
A person familiar with the matter told NBC News that US intelligence agencies had identified Alice Huang as a Chinese spy. Nvidia said independent directors and counsel would oversee the probe.
The conflicting moves put a company worth more than $4 trillion at the centre of a broad rebound after the previous week’s sell-off. Huang’s future, the investigation’s timetable and whether sensitive information was compromised remain unresolved.
| Measure | Report 1 | Report 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Nvidia | down 4.3% | down 4.2% |
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | up 2.2% to 52,389 | up more than 1,100 points |
| S&P 500 | up 2.4% to 7,549 | up 2.3% |
| Nasdaq Composite | up 2.7% to 25,253 | |
| Nasdaq 100 | up 3.4% |
Monday was the first session since April 5 in which all three major benchmarks rose at least 2%, Dow Jones Market Data said. The previous week had brought a sharp sell-off amid worries that new Democratic leaders in Washington and state governments, including those in Texas and Ohio, would hamper data center construction.
Thursday marked the worst one-day stock market drop since President Trump’s initial wave of tariffs in April 2025, NBC News reported. Monday’s gains followed that decline.
Bargain hunters returned after last week’s broad-market losses, while stocks also gained support from a more than 4% drop in oil prices as US-Iran talks continued.
Nvidia’s fall erased almost $200 billion in market value, NBC News said. Its peers, including AMD, Qualcomm, Taiwan Semi and Intel, rose with the wider market, leaving Nvidia the biggest loser on both the Dow and the S&P 500.
Huang told employees in an email over the weekend that he had been unfaithful to his wife and that employees deserved better from him. He wrote: “My responsibility is to serve you and be worthy of your trust. I have fallen short of that responsibility. I am fully committed to NVIDIA and will work to earn back your confidence.”
In recent days, The Financial Times and The New York Times reported that Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman, had a relationship with Huang. A person familiar with the matter told NBC News that US intelligence agencies had concluded she was a Chinese spy. The two Huangs are unrelated.
Alice Huang is alleged to work at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based cloud company that didn’t reply to requests for comment. China dismissed the espionage allegations as smears.
Nvidia’s board said it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised. It added: “The Board prioritizes U.S. national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders”.
Huang founded Nvidia in 1993 and has led it since. Outside investment funds, he is the company’s largest individual shareholder, with a stake worth about 3.5% of shares outstanding; Nvidia has one class of shares, so the stake doesn’t protect him from removal if the board decides to act.
An Nvidia spokesperson said Huang was committed to continuing to lead the company as CEO without interruption. President Donald Trump gave Huang his support on Sunday. Asked whether Huang should remain CEO, Trump said: “I think so. Oh yeah, sure.”
The episode “is a black eye moment for Jensen and will spark multiple congressional inquiries at a minimum and will create an overhang on the stock for a myriad of reasons”, said Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives. Ives said Huang could face removal depending on the board investigation, which could pose a risk to the stock given Huang’s importance to Nvidia’s strategy.
Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com, said there was no confirmed indication Huang would step down and the controversy didn’t necessarily change the company’s underlying demand outlook. Hathorn said AI valuation concerns and possible further Fed tightening were bigger risks.
CME Group FedWatch put futures traders’ odds of a quarter-percentage-point Federal Reserve rate increase at its meeting next month at 84%. BeiChen Lin of Russell Investments said that, following a strong jobs report, the Fed would have little patience with inflation and even a small surprise could secure a December increase.
The October Consumer Price Index is due the morning after Monday’s close. It will not include a year-over-year figure because of last year’s government shutdown.
The board hasn’t provided a timetable for the investigation or details of Huang’s contact with Alice Huang. Whether Huang will remain CEO and whether national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised also remain unresolved.
The October Consumer Price Index is due the morning after Monday’s close; Nvidia’s board has not set a timetable for its investigation.
