Nvidia lost nearly $200 billion in market capitalization in a single day. It was an anomaly for the market.

Nvidia’s stock fell during trading on November 9, despite a broad market rally. Such a divergence is an almost unprecedented occurrence, according to Bloomberg. Investors rushed to sell shares of the leading chipmaker after Nvidia’s board of directors launched an independent investigation into CEO Jensen Huang’s ties to a Chinese businesswoman. As a result of this relationship, Huang may have become a target of foreign intelligence services.

Nvidia shares fell 4.3% at the close of trading on Monday, causing the company’s market capitalization to drop by $192 billion, according to MarketWatch. During the session, the stock lost as much as 9% of its value. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index jumped 2.3%, marking its strongest one-day gain since April, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite soared 2.7%.

"Where Nvidia goes, the U.S. stock market follows," notes Bloomberg, adding: "At least, that’s how it used to be." Such a sharp divergence in the performance of the company’s stock and the S&P 500—in which it accounts for 6.7% of the index—is nearly unprecedented. From the time Nvidia was added to the index in 2001 through Monday, there were only two instances when its stock fell by at least 4% while the index rose by at least 2%. The last time this happened was in May 2009, when Nvidia’s market capitalization was about $5 billion—nearly 1,000 times less than it is today.

When Nvidia’s stock falls by at least 4%, the S&P 500 loses more than 1.6% on average, according to Bloomberg data. This correlation has only grown stronger over the years as the company has become one of the largest by market capitalization in the index and in the world.

Amid high market volatility and investor concerns that the development of AI infrastructure could slow down, Nvidia’s market value has fallen by $1.46 trillion over the past 24 trading days, marking record losses for any U.S. company, according to MarketWatch.

The CEO of Nvidia, who is the company’s largest known private shareholder with a 3.58% stake, was the only one of the world’s ten richest people whose net worth declined by midday on Monday, according to Forbes. By the end of the day, Huang had lost $6.8 billion and dropped two spots in the billionaire rankings to tenth place. During trading, he even briefly dropped out of the top ten. His net worth has now fallen to $155.4 billion, according to Forbes.

On November 8, Huang admitted to having an extramarital affair with Alice Huang—a woman with the same last name—a former top executive at the Singapore-based company Megaspeed International, which purchases Nvidia AI chips. U.S. authorities suspect Alice herself of collaborating with Chinese intelligence, and her company of facilitating the shipment of advanced chips to China in circumvention of export restrictions.

Nvidia's board of directors has launched an independent investigation to determine whether Huang was the target of an operation by foreign intelligence agencies, but stated that it would not remove him from his position. There is currently no reason to believe that confidential information or U.S. national security has been compromised, the company said.

According to sources cited by Bloomberg, Nvidia’s general counsel, Tim Teter, reached out to U.S. authorities regarding the investigation into alleged chip smuggling by Megaspeed and the detention of Alice Huang in Singapore. Shortly thereafter, investigators were required to coordinate any contact with Nvidia through senior management, and later, at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice, their work was suspended. It is unclear whether these restrictions are related to Teter’s appeal or whether he asked for intervention in the investigation. The company stated that at the time of the request, the attorney was unaware of Huang’s connection to Alice.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he had spoken personally with the CEO of Nvidia. “According to him, he had absolutely no idea that the woman in question was a spy,” CNBC quoted Trump as saying. The president stated that the FBI is investigating the circumstances of the case and expressed confidence that “everything will be fine” for Huang.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor