FBI looking into Huang affair, says Trump, as Nvidia shareholders sue
Donald Trump said Jensen Huang had told him “I had no idea she was a spy” and that “I really believe him”, before adding that “the FBI is looking into it in terms of something else”. A class action was filed in federal court in San Jose on Monday accusing Nvidia and its chief executive of misleading investors over his relationship with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive suspected of helping smuggle chips to China. Asian chip stocks surged on Tuesday.
The shares closed around $178, cutting the company’s value to about $4.3tn, even as the S&P 500 rose 2.35% for its best day since April and the Nasdaq 2.74%; accounts of the fall range from 3.2% to more than 4%. Mr Trump said Mr Huang “is suffering greatly … more so because of his family, his wife, who he loves” and predicted “he’ll be in good shape”, but his place in next week’s presidential delegation to China is in doubt and Senator Chris Coons wants to know whether national security was compromised; the FBI declined to comment. Beijing called the allegations “entirely groundless, speculative and intended to smear and malign China”. The succession question is now live: Melius notes “there is no clear successor to Jensen”, who owns just over 3% of a company with eleven directors and no chair, and Redburn says he could step back if the probe finds “something materially more serious”. Tuesday’s Asian session shrugged it off: SoftBank jumped 13.4%, SK Hynix 5.2%, Samsung 3.9% and Tokyo Electron 4.7%. Watch Washington’s closed-door briefing next week.