Nvidia stock lost about $250 billion in value in a day. The company opened an investigation due to CEO Jensen Huang's relationship with a woman whom American intelligence suspects of spying for China, writes the BBC.
Nvidia shares fell about 4%. According to the NYT, Alice Huang, who ran the Singapore company Mega Speed, had business ties with Nvidia. Last spring, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned US officials about her close relationship with Huang.
The CEO himself admitted that he cheated on his wife and apologized to her and the children. He said he would cooperate with the investigation. Huang is scheduled to appear in a closed-door briefing before several US congressional committees next week.
Nvidia said it had no reason to believe its trade secrets or US national security were at risk. China has denied the accusations of espionage.
Trump said he personally asked Huang if he knew about the alleged spying. The CEO replied that he did not know, and the president said that he believed him. Trump also said the FBI was investigating the case.
Against this background, shares of other technology companies grew: AMD - by 13.26%, Amazon - by 2.94%, Microsoft - by 2.75%. Analysts believe that the scandal is unlikely to affect the stock for a long time: Nvidia remains one of the key players in the artificial intelligence industry.