By Alistair Barr
Publication Date: 2026-11-12 01:15:00
How valuable is a CEO? Often, it’s hard to say. Sometimes, though, a series of unusual events provides a crystal-clear answer.
On Wednesday afternoon, the New York Times reported that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had an affair with a subordinate, following revelations earlier this week that he had a romantic relationship with a possible Chinese spy.
Right after that, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia’s board was preparing to oust Huang.
That one-two punch knocked Nvidia shares down about 8% in after-hours trading, wiping more than $300 billion off the company’s market value.
The Chinese spy allegations were already known days ago. The new news today is that Jensen Huang is likely to be ousted as CEO.
So we have our answer: Huang is worth at least $300 billion. That’s more than Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the world’s most important investment banks.
And quite right, too. Huang is “the architect of the US AI trajectory,” Stacy Rasgon, a top chip analyst from Bernstein Research, wrote in a note to investors earlier this week.
This is the most powerful new technology to emerge since the dawn of the internet 30 years ago. And the US is in the lead — well ahead of China in second place.
Now, with Huang likely out, and no obvious successor, America’s AI lead looks shakier.
