Nvidia CEO's Affair Allegedly Bypassed China Chip Ban, Triggering $400B Market Drop

Nvidia's market value dropped by over $400 billion after reports that CEO Jensen Huang's extramarital affair facilitated billions in chip imports to China, potentially bypassing export restrictions. The woman, Alice Huang, allegedly enabled shipments of AI accelerators worth several billion dollars. Alice Huang, a business partner of Nvidia and Jensen Huang, reportedly used a network of companies to ship at least $7.5 billion worth of Nvidia chips, including over 240,000 A100, H100, and H200 systems, to China. These models have been largely banned from the Chinese market since October 2022 US sanctions. The operation involved a Chinese firm, Century Litong, and Singapore-based Megaspeed, which became a preferred Nvidia cloud partner in October 2023. US agencies are pushing to blacklist Megaspeed, but the Commerce Department has delayed a decision pending further investigation. President Donald Trump faces pressure for allegedly ignoring intelligence briefings about Alice Huang's suspected espionage. Jensen Huang admitted the affair and Nvidia launched a probe. He is scheduled to testify before a closed-door US congressional committee next week.