Jensen Huang’s NVIDIA stake has lost more than $20 billion in value this week as the chipmaker’s shares slid, a paper decline tied to a position large enough to move the numbers fast. The drop came as Nvidia said on Thursday that Huang had resigned from his roles as president, CEO and board member.
The size of the loss is tied to Huang’s enormous ownership position. A September Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed he reported beneficial ownership of about 811.5 million NVIDIA shares, including 70.1 million held directly and the rest through trusts and other entities. That structure matters because the market value of the whole position rises and falls with the stock, even when no shares are sold.
On Friday Nov. 6, NVIDIA closed at $186.64 after trading around $161 during the session, helping drive the week’s decline in the market value of Huang’s holdings. The move is not a realized loss from stock sales, and Huang’s resignation does not automatically change his ownership of the shares.
The timing has made the slide more than a simple market story. In a Sunday email to employees that Nvidia shared publicly, Huang said he had been unfaithful to his wife and added, “My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.” He also wrote, “Regarding the national security concerns raised in news reports, NVIDIA’s Board of Directors has initiated an independent investigation.”
Nvidia’s board said in a Sunday statement that it was opening that review in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. That leaves Huang facing a bruising stretch on two fronts: a sharp drop in the marked-to-market value of one of the largest personal stakes in technology and an investigation whose findings have not been made public.
