Jensen Huang’s Net Worth Drops $4.6 Billion, And Falling Fast
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The scandal surrounding Jensen Huang’s relationship with his lover, Alice Huang, has deepened. Several news outlets question whether the affair touched in any way on ties between Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) and Singapore data center company Megaspeed. Was Megaspeed illegally steering Nvidia AI chips to China? Nvidia’s board has opened an investigation and hired outside counsel.
As the trouble for Jensen Huang deepened, his net worth dropped $4.6 billion in a day, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. This would put his net worth at $148 billion, still making him the world’s 12th-richest man. Who cares? No matter what happens, he will remain among the world’s richest people. Nvidia is worth $4.3 trillion, and falling.
The modest drop suggests Huang’s trouble will be short-lived. That may not be the case. Yesterday, Nvidia’s stock fell only 4.3% and is down another 5% today. The Trump Admission looked into Alice Huang’’s relationship to Megaspeed, a company which may or may have not facilitated the movement of Nvidia chips to China. For now, the market is mostly giving Huang the benefit of the doubt. News today about $7.5 billion of chips that may have made their way into China makes the situation more complex and harder to untangle.
Two things could further undermine Huang’s net worth. First, his board could discover he was more deeply involved in Alice Huang’s business at Megaspeed, which would be a disaster. The other is whether he loses his position as the “de facto” face of the global AI industry. No longer a major player, he would lose much of his control of both chips and industry funding. One sign of a weakness is whether Nvidia appoints a chairman, a role that is currently vacant. It would mean his control of Nvidia would be at least partially undercut
An “undercut” Huang might mean his role as a globe-trotting leader of AI with the industry, its representative to governments and Wall St., and the advocacy of AI to the public may be gone
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