Nvidia perps plunge 10% on Hyperliquid as board reportedly weighs ousting Jensen Huang

Nvidia stock perpetual futures plunged as much as 10% late Wednesday after media reports that the company's board is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang over two extramarital affairs, one of them involving a suspected Chinese spy.

Nvidia's NVDA-USDC perps on Hyperliquid began sliding around 5 p.m. ET, hitting a low of roughly $156.14 before recovering slightly. The perps were down 6.8% over the past 24 hours to trade at $158.86 as of 7:50 p.m. ET Wednesday.

NVDAx, the tokenized Nvidia stock from xStocks, dropped as much as 9% before slightly rebounding to $159.51. Nvidia's Nasdaq-listed shares also fell 8% in after-hours trading.

Prediction markets also reflected rising expectations of Huang's ouster. On Kalshi, the odds of Huang stepping down as Nvidia CEO before Nov. 13, 2026, surged to 64%, up from around 37% just a few hours earlier. A similar market on Polymarket showed a 67% chance of Huang leaving his post by Nov. 12 and a 71% chance by Nov. 13.

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Nvidia leadership uncertainty

The sell-off came after the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter, that Nvidia's board could meet as soon as that day to discuss Huang's future, raising the prospect of a leadership shake-up at one of the world's most valuable companies.

The New York Times also reported that Huang — who's already under investigation for an affair with Alice Huang, a suspected Chinese spy — had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care.

Huang and Powell were seen behaving affectionately at a San Jose, California, hotel during an Nvidia conference in March, according to two former company employees cited by the New York Times. According to the firm's code of conduct, employees should avoid personal relationships that could create conflicts of interest.

An earlier NYT report cited a memo, circulated among top U.S. policymakers last spring, alleging that Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman, was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to gather intelligence on the Nvidia founder.

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Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures fell Wednesday evening as the Nvidia turmoil deepened. The S&P 500 futures lost 0.4%, while the Nasdaq 100 dropped 0.8%.