Nvidia shares fell as much as 5% on Monday following an announcement that the board of directors will investigate Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang. The inquiry focuses on his relationship with a Alice Huang, a woman suspected by intelligence agencies of being a Chinese spy.
In a memo distributed to employees on Sunday, Huang admitted to an extramarital affair, offered apologies to his family and workforce, and confirmed he would participate with the independent board review. The disclosure prompted market analysts to highlight increased key-person risk for the artificial intelligence hardware manufacturer.
Shadows and Silicon ValleyThe market reaction remained concentrated, leaving the broader semiconductor industry intact. Shares in Advanced Micro Devices rose 8% after Oppenheimer analysts changed their stance on the stock to a Buy rating. Broadcom gained 6%, whilst Intel grew by 2%.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the contract manufacturer responsible for fabricating Nvidia designs, saw its stock increase by nearly 2%. ASML, a producer of lithography systems used in semiconductor fabrication, advanced 3%. Stock price movements for processor developer Qualcomm and semiconductor designer Arm Holdings were minimal.
Concurrently, Alphabet shares traded up by more than 2% during the morning session after launching two tensor processing units. The additions bring Alphabet's total to four tensor processing unit architectures introduced within a 12-month window as the enterprise scales its internal silicon development.