Nvidia's Board Weighs Ousting Jensen Huang: Is AI a House of Cards?

<p>Breaking news hit Nvidia during today's show. The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's board is preparing to oust founder and CEO Jensen Huang after The New York Times reported a second extramarital affair, and Bloomberg later reported that Nvidia is working with an outside firm to explore potential replacements. Nvidia shares had closed up $4.84, or 2.87%, at $173.73, their first gain since the story broke on Sunday, before dropping $15.53, or 8.94%, at one point in after-hours trading and dragging Nasdaq futures lower.</p><p>Jon Sanchez explains why he has long called this kind of event the biggest risk to AI. He walks through his "octopus theory" of Nvidia's reach across the technology industry and his concerns about circular deals, where Nvidia sells chips and then helps finance them. He breaks down the dilemma facing Nvidia's 12-member board: Huang owns only about 3% of the shares, sits on the board as a non-voting member and, by Jon's account, has no successor in place. Jon also runs the numbers on Huang's reported holdings, including his living trust, LLCs and irrevocable trusts: about 811.5 million shares worth roughly $140.99 billion at today's close, so every $1 move in the stock changes their value by about $811.5 million.</p><p>Plus calls from members of Congress for Huang to resign, and a Wall Street Journal timeline of Nvidia, chip exports to China and the White House. Jon's Estate Planning Wednesday topic moves to Friday.</p><p>Markets: with the bond market closed for Veterans Day, the Dow rose about 255 points, or 0.49%, to 52,486, the Nasdaq gained about 400 points, or 1.6%, and the S&amp;P 500 rose 98 points, or 1.31%.</p>