On Sunday, Nvidia's board said it had confidence in Jensen Huang and his leadership team.^[1] On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia is preparing to oust him as chief executive.^[2] The stock fell more than 9% in after-hours trading that evening.^[3] Between those two points lie four days, an admitted affair, an allegation of espionage, an independent inquiry, a shareholder lawsuit and calls in Congress for him to resign. Read together, reports from eight outlets and the board's own statement show how fast the company's position on its founder moved, and what it cost. Nvidia did not respond to requests for comment on the report of an ouster.^[4] Huang remained chief executive as of Tuesday 10 November.^[5] No board decision has been announced in any of these reports. Sunday: the admission and the inquiry Huang told Nvidia employees that he had been unfaithful to his wife.^[6] He published the apology to staff on Sunday.^[7] The same day the company announced a probe.^[8] The board said it was initiating an independent investigation.^[9] Independent directors, with outside counsel, would oversee it.^[10] The board's statement described the reason in careful terms. It said recent reporting states that Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort.^[11] It said it had no reason to believe that security or Nvidia's secrets were compromised.^[12] It said Huang supports the review and will cooperate.^[13] The allegation The woman at the centre of the reporting is Alice Huang, a former executive of a company called Megaspeed. U.S. authorities concluded that she was a Chinese intelligence asset, Reuters reported.^[14] The New York Times had reported the alleged relationship the month before.^[15] Megaspeed International purchased nearly $5 billion of Nvidia's AI chips.^[16] China denied the allegations of an espionage plot targeting Huang.^[17] Donald Trump said the FBI is probing the matter.^[18] None of this has been tested in a court. The conclusion about Alice Huang is attributed to U.S. officials, and China rejects it. Monday: the market answers Nvidia held a market capitalization of more than $4 trillion on Monday morning.^[19] The stock closed down more than 4% at $178.67.^[20] The day's fall cut its market value by about $190 billion.^[21] A proposed shareholder class action against Nvidia and Huang followed at once.^[22] It was filed five minutes after U.S. stock markets closed.^[23] The complaint was filed in federal court in San Jose, California.^[24] It accuses the pair of defrauding shareholders by hiding ties to a suspected Chinese spy.^[25] The shareholders, led by Mark Kistenmacher, are seeking unspecified damages.^[26] A complaint is an accusation. Nothing in it has been proven. Huang withdrew from public view the same day. He did not attend a chief executives' forum hosted by Anthropic.^[27] ElevenLabs confirmed that he dropped out of a speaking event scheduled for the week.^[28] In Washington, the Gang of Eight was due to receive a national security briefing on Monday afternoon.^[29] Tuesday: lawyers in, stock down again The board hired Joon H. Kim and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate.^[30] The stock fell for a second consecutive day.^[31] It dropped 5.47%.^[32] The company briefly dipped below a $4 trillion market capitalization.^[33] Almost $500 billion in market value was erased in two days.^[34] Rivals went the other way. AMD gained 1.3% on Tuesday.^[35] Broadcom gained nearly 4%.^[36] At that point the market still expected Huang to survive. Analysts estimated a 15% chance that he would be removed.^[37] They expected the board's investigation to take four to six weeks.^[38] Wednesday: a second report, and the board On Wednesday the New York Times reported that Huang had an extramarital affair with an Nvidia executive, Kimberly Powell.^[39] Powell is the company's vice president of health care and joined in 2008.^[40] That report concerns a subordinate, which is a different question for a board from the one it began with. Reports said the board planned to meet over Huang's future.^[41] The Wall Street Journal was first to report plans to remove him.^[42] The Trump administration is aware of the board's plans, CBS News reported.^[43] The inquiry that analysts expected to run for four to six weeks was three days old. The cost so far The after-hours fall on Wednesday took the shares to $159.51, by one count a drop of more than 8%.^[44] If it holds, it could erase almost $400 billion more.^[45] The company's market value has dropped by more than $450 billion since the probe was announced on 8 November.^[46] The slide began earlier than the scandal became public: the shares had dropped 31% since 6 October.^[47] The three after-hours figures in these reports, as much as 8%, more than 8% and more than 9%, were taken at different moments on Wednesday evening.^[48] Washington Some lawmakers are calling for Huang to resign.^[49] Congressional committees are considering a subpoena.^[50] Congress will question Nvidia executives about the routing of chips to China.^[51] The policy consequence may outlast the personal one. Huang opposed strict export controls on AI chips to China.^[52] Congress may now advance bills to tighten those controls in the National Defense Authorization Act.^[53] Why one man matters this much Huang founded Nvidia and has led it since 1993.^[54] It is the world's most valuable chipmaker.^[55] Its chips power the leading AI developers, including OpenAI and Anthropic.^[56] A company of that size has had one chief executive for 33 years. The market has no record of it under anyone else. What comes next Three clocks are running. The board's decision, which the reports say is close. The independent investigation, under a former federal prosecutor. And the shareholder suit in San Jose. Behind them is the FBI inquiry the president described, and a Congress weighing both a subpoena and new export law.