Fall of Nvidia on Hyperliquid: Jensen Huang targeted by investigation

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The company published two texts on its site on Sunday November 8. The first comes from the council. Its statement announced an independent investigation “in light of recent reports that founder and CEO Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence operation.” A committee of independent directors supervises it with the help of an outside law firm. On the other hand, the text gives neither the names nor the calendar.

The board says it has “no reason to believe” that national security or Nvidia’s secrets have been compromised, and it renews its confidence in the leader. The second text then bears the signature “Jensen”. “I was unfaithful to my wife. There is no excuse for what I did,” he wrote to employees before promising to cooperate fully. However, he is not talking about resignation. A spokesperson told The Block that the founder intends to continue to lead the group “without interruption”.

“Leading Nvidia is the privilege of my life. I failed in this responsibility. I remain fully committed to Nvidia and will work to regain your trust.”

The press release said nothing about the substance of the accusations. They come from an article in the New York Times published at the end of October and summarized by The Block. A memo distributed in the spring among senior American officials claims that the Chinese Ministry of State Security would have recruited a Chinese businesswoman close to the leader to collect information on him. However, this remains an allegation. No authority has publicly confirmed it and Nvidia does not endorse it.

Sunday, 4 p.m. in New York. The stock exchanges are not trading, but Hyperliquid's NVDA perpetual contract (a derivative product with no maturity that tracks the stock price and trades day and night) is starting to slip. It touched 178.10 dollars then rose to 180.50 dollars around 10:10 p.m., or 4:10 a.m. Monday in Paris. The Block notes a drop of 3.8% in 24 hours for approximately $170 million in volume. The stock closed Friday at $186.64 on the Nasdaq.

Rick Maeda, head of markets at Laevitas, sums up the situation: these contracts were "the only place where a price could form." Want to know what Nvidia is worth on a Sunday evening? Now you have to look at a crypto derivatives platform. Furthermore, the probability that Jensen Huang would leave his position by December 31 was 16% on Polymarket.

The rest of the market shook less than might have been feared. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.7% Sunday evening and Taipei opened Monday up 5.4%.

Machine-translated from French