Nvidia shares fall 4% as Congress committee summons Jensen Huang for 18 November

Shares of Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, closed more than 4% lower on 9 November, after falling nearly 9% during the day, AFP reported. Investors reacted to the company’s inquiry into whether its chief executive, Jensen Huang, was targeted by Chinese intelligence.

A committee of the US House of Representatives that deals with China has asked Mr. Huang to appear before it on 18 November, AFP reported.

What has happened

Nvidia’s board said on 8 November that it had opened an independent inquiry after reports that Mr. Huang had been “the target of a foreign intelligence effort”. The board said it had no reason to believe that national security or company secrets had been compromised.

Mr. Huang told employees in a message that he had been unfaithful to his wife. US intelligence had concluded that the woman, a former executive of a Singapore company, passed information to Beijing, The New York Times reported.

The responses

President Donald Trump said he had spoken to Mr. Huang on 9 November and that he was “suffering greatly”. Mr. Trump said he believed Mr. Huang’s account that he never knew the woman was a spy.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Guo Jiakun, said the story of a “so-called Chinese spy” was entirely baseless and a smear.

A New York short seller, Culper Research, had questioned the relationship in a report in May, TechCrunch reported. Short sellers make money when a share price falls, and the firm’s claims have not been independently checked, TechCrunch said.

Why it matters

Nvidia makes most of the chips used to train artificial intelligence systems. The affair could complicate its efforts to persuade Washington to ease limits on selling advanced chips to China, TechCrunch reported.

What’s next

Mr. Huang is due before the House Select Committee on China on 18 November. The board’s inquiry, run with outside lawyers, has not said when it will report.