Should I buy NVIDIA stock now? Nvidia shares fell more than 8% to $159.51 in after-hours trading after reports that its board is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang. The move deepened a selloff tied to a leadership crisis at a company central to AI.
The stock tumbled after the close on Wednesday, after Nvidia launched an investigation into Huang this week following his admission of an extramarital affair. The company has already lost more than $450 billion in market value since it announced the probe on Nov. 8.
Jensen Huang's apology
Huang wrote to employees on Sunday and apologized to his wife and their two children, both of whom work at Nvidia. In that message, he said, "There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry," a line that widened the fallout around the company’s chief executive.
He co-founded Nvidia in 1993, and the board turmoil lands at a moment when the company’s chips supply the computing power behind frontier AI models. That makes any leadership move more than a personnel change; it raises the question of who can guide the company through the next stretch without rattling its core business.
Board pressure on Nvidia
Nvidia’s 11-person board includes Huang, while the other members are designated as independent in a regulatory filing. That makes the reported push to remove him unusual: the board is weighing whether to oust its own co-founder while he still sits on it.
The first reported that board members were preparing to remove him. The Trump administration is aware of the plans, and President Trump said this week that the FBI is also investigating romantic and business ties between Huang and Alice Huang.
Wall Street watches succession
Adam Crisafulli said, "The news is obviously negative, as Jensen is (arguably) the most prominent executive at the most prominent company sitting at the center of the world's most important industry — someone who foresaw the rise of AI years before ChatGPT arrived and made sure the firm he founded would be prepared to capitalize on it," and investors are already weighing the vacuum a removal would create.
Dan Ives said investors will focus on who could succeed Huang, what that would do to Nvidia’s short-term strategy, and what government investigations may reveal. Congress is also expected to question company executives about whether Nvidia’s chips are being funneled to China through other countries, keeping the pressure on the stock even after the after-hours drop.
