Shares of Nvidia edged higher in premarket trading on Tuesday as investors assessed the fallout from allegations involving chief executive officer Jensen Huang and a woman identified in media reports as a suspected Chinese intelligence operative.
The stock was trading 1.8% higher at $178.67 as of 4:40 AM ET, recovering some of the losses recorded in the previous session. Nvidia shares plunged more than 4% on Monday after Huang reportedly acknowledged in an email to employees that he had been unfaithful to his wife and had fallen short of his responsibilities as the company's CEO.
The controversy has added to the pressure on the world's leading artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker, whose shares have been witnessing a prolonged decline.
The allegations centre on Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed, which is reportedly an Nvidia customer.
According to a report published by The New York Times on October 29, US officials had concluded that Alice Huang was allegedly a Chinese intelligence asset who was providing information to Beijing. The report also raised concerns that she may have been involved in directing advanced Nvidia AI chips to China.