Too big to fire? Tech analyst Dan Ives says ousting Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang trims up to 30% of the company's value

The comment comes as Huang grapples with the fallout of an extramarital affair with an alleged Chinese spy that could jeopardize his job. Ives estimated there’s a roughly 15% chance that Jensen is removed.

Nvidia didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Moneywise.

Huang’s affair

In a Nov. 8 email to staff, Huang admitted he was unfaithful to his wife, and multiple outlets have reported the affair was with Alice Huang (no relation), a woman accused of being a Chinese intelligence operative. She was an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that the U.S. has suspected was helping China get around AI chip sale bans.

“You deserve better from me,” Huang said in the email. “My responsibility is to serve you and be worthy of your trust. I have fallen short of that responsibility. I am fully committed to NVIDIA and will work to earn back your confidence.”

On the same day, Nvidia’s board of directors announced it was launching an investigation into reports that Huang was the target of foreign intelligence efforts, though the company said it has no reason to believe its CEO had “compromised” American national security.

Nvidia’s paradox

It’s difficult to overstate Nvidia’s significance in the frenzied AI buildout. The AI behemoth is a prominent developer of the graphics processing units (GPUs) powering AI infrastructure like the data centers springing up across the U.S.

Its market capitalization hit approximately $5.79 trillion at the start of October, though it has slid to about $4 trillion, still leaving it as one of the most valuable firms on earth. If Ives’ prediction did come to fruition, Huang’s ouster could knock off between $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion from Nvidia’s overall value.

Nvidia also planted itself in the AI boom’s financial ecosystem by partnering with Wall Street firms in a $500 billion gambit to marshal new capital and streamline chip financing, so Nvidia’s customers can better afford them.