Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Loses $18 Billion in Net Worth as Stock Plunges
Nvidia's stock plummeted on Monday, causing CEO Jensen Huang's net worth to drop by $18 billion. According to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires list, Huang's net worth fell to $106.3 billion, a decrease of nearly 15%.
Huang owns approximately 3% of Nvidia's shares, which fell nearly 16% to around $120 each by midday. The decline resulted in a loss of over $465 billion in market capitalization for the semiconductor giant, marking the largest single-day decline in market value for any company, surpassing its previous record set in September 2022.
The drop placed Nvidia below Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) as the third-most valuable company globally. Just last week, Nvidia had surpassed Apple to become the world's most valuable company.
The sell-off in tech stocks on Monday affected other major chip stocks as well, including ASML (ASML), Broadcom (AVGO), Super Micro Computer (SMCI), Micron (MU), and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM). The tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged over 600 points, or roughly 3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 70 points, and the S&P 500 tumbled almost 2%.
The sell-off was sparked by DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, which announced last week that it had launched a rival model to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Meta's Llama 3.1. DeepSeek built its model using lower capability chips from Nvidia, raising concerns that the semiconductor company could face pressure if other firms shift away from its premium offerings.
Analysts at Wedbush noted that while DeepSeek is a perceived threat to U.S. tech dominance, U.S. companies still lead the race in artificial general intelligence (AGI).