Nvidia shares slide as traders open short positions amid reports of probe into CEO Huang's affair

NVIDIA shares tanked 3.4% in after-hours trading from Friday's Nasdaq closing price of $186.64 to $180.30, as CEO Jensen Huang has admitted to having an affair with a Chinese businesswoman who is allegedly a Chinese intelligence asset. NVIDIA-linked Crypto trading topped $189 million in the last 24 hours. Several traders have opened short positions on the company's synthetic perpetual futures contracts. The aggressive selling happened on crypto derivatives venues like Hyperliquid, while Wall Street was completely shut.

The firm has announced an internal investigation into Huang on Sunday to determine whether the CEO had been compromised, putting his future at the chipmaker at risk. Jensun Heung, who is also framed by Silicon Valley as the Godfather of AI, will be devastating for the company's market cap.

"If we genuinely thought he was going to step down ... the stock would be down — it would be an absolute bloodbath, to be honest," said Chris Weston, Australian brokerage researcher.

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According to the Street, a review of the 25 largest positions of $189 million traded in the last 24 hours saw three traders open at least $9.1 million worth of short positions Sunday afternoon. Unlike traditional shorting, where people borrow stocks and sell them, then buy them back when prices fall, pocketing the difference. Traders at Hyperliquid are betting on whether the price will go up or down without owning the asset itself, taking 3x, 5x, 10x leveraged short positions. If the price falls, they will profit, and if it goes up, they will be liquidated.

Trump, NVIDIA board backs Huang

NVIDIA board has backed Huang; it said in a statement that a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, will oversee the investigation, and that it "has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team." Trump, when asked on Sunday about the reports of an affair, backed him publicly, calling that Heung is an “honourable man” and will “definitely come along” on the high-stakes tour scheduled from November 16-19, which includes stops at the ASEAN summit in Manila and the APEC summit in Shenzhen. Huang was also added to Trump's trip to Beijing in May at the eleventh hour after much deliberation. He has been vocal in opposing the chip export ban to China and rebuilding the US-China relationship, positioning himself as a shuttle for diplomacy.