By Andrew Moran

Shares of chip giant Nvidia tanked at the opening bell as the company’s board of directors opens an investigation into CEO Jensen Huang’s affair.

Nvidia shares opened the trading week down about 6 percent to below $180.

In an email to staff, the Nvidia co-founder admitted to having an affair and having fallen short of his responsibility to shareholders, colleagues, the board, and partners.

“I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” Huang wrote.

The board launched an independent investigation following reports that Huang was the target of a “foreign intelligence effort,” according to a Nov. 8 news release.

“While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information,” it said.

“Jensen fully supports the review and has committed to cooperating with it.”

U.S. intelligence agencies have alleged that Alice Huang, an executive at cloud company MegaSpeed, shared information with the Chinese regime.

China rejected the claim, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun calling it “a groundless accusation, slander, and a smear.”

Despite the scandal, market watchers say this will have little effect on the chipmaking juggernaut moving forward.

“Limited impact on NVIDIA by the Huang honeytrap story,” Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of market research firm Reflexivity, told The Epoch Times in an emailed note.

AI labs have long recognized that their employees are targets of these types of operations, Sette said. Looking ahead, investors are likely more concerned about issues such as excessive data center spending and crowded positioning in AI-related stocks than these reports, he said.

But Ken Mahoney, president and CEO of Mahoney Asset Management, raised the question of whether intellectual property or sensitive information was compromised.

Depending on the results of the board’s probe, Nvidia may have to consider a potential change in leadership, he added.

“You would not want to see Jensen removed as CEO, we think that the stock would be in even tougher shape than it is now if that were to happen,” Mahoney told The Epoch Times in an emailed note.

“He is an exceptionally important figure to tech and the AI buildout.”

President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on Nov. 8, said he has not yet spoken to Huang.

“I have not spoken to him ​about it. I just know he’s a ​fine person, but you never know what is going on,” Trump said.

“I think he’s an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it. You have to hear it. He’s done an amazing job for our country.”

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared an X post from Shaun Maguire, partner at Sequoia, who called Huang “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of this generation.”

“I agree,” Musk said.

This comes ahead of Nvidia’s third-quarter earnings release on Nov. 17. In addition to revenues, sales, and guidance, analysts and shareholders will look for more answers on the Huang saga.

A broad-based rally took place on Wall Street to start the trading week.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rallied around 700 points. The broad-market S&P 500 also jumped more than 100 points.

U.S. stocks have been staging a comeback since the sharp Nov. 5 selloff.

Still, the story’s timing is “not great” for financial markets as Democratic lawmakers aim to investigate Big Tech, “and they will most definitely be on his case,” Mahoney said.

Jacki Thrapp and Reuters contributed to this report.