AI chip leader Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang's net worth fell by about $10 billion on Tuesday after the company's shares plunged nearly 10% amid global selling pressure.
The 61-year-old Taiwan-born CEO, who worked as a toilet cleaner and server at Denny's before co-founding Nvidia more than 30 years ago, has seen his net worth fall to $94.9 billion. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
His fortune, which has risen by $51 billion this year alone, was dented by Nvidia's biggest one-day loss in history, wiping its market capitalization by nearly $280 billion.
As of Tuesday, Nvidia's market cap was $2.6 trillion, behind only Apple ($3.35 trillion) and Microsoft ($3.02 trillion).
Nvidia shares fell Bloomberg News reported. The Department of Justice issued a subpoena to the company as part of its ongoing investigation into possible antitrust violations.
The Santa Clara, California-based company is notorious for a strict work culture in which employees work seven days a week, sometimes until 1 or 2 a.m., and has also allegedly intimidated customers, including imposing fines if they didn't buy only its chips.
The investigation is looking into whether Nvidia is charging customers higher prices for network equipment if they want to buy AI chips from rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) or Intel.
Shares in the struggling chipmaker slumped nearly 9 percent after Reuters reported that Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger and other top executives plan to present a plan to the company's board of directors to cut nonessential businesses and restructure capital spending.
The Justice Department, which shares investigations of major technology companies with the Federal Trade Commission, is leading the investigation into Nvidia, according to Reuters.
The FTC is headed by Lina Khan, and her aggressive antitrust enforcement against big corporations has led several industry heavyweights, including media mogul Barry Diller and tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, to call for her to be removed from her post at the FTC if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the White House in 2024.
Nvidia, whose chips are used for both artificial intelligence and computer graphics, has seen a surge in demand for its products after the release of generative AI application ChatGPT.
But the company's business practices have prompted investigations by regulators in the United States as well as Europe for alleged monopoly behavior.
The European Union, France and China have all asked Nvidia for information about its graphics cards.
Government regulators have grown wary of Nvidia's market dominance, which is based on the company's reliance on its CUDA chip-programming software, the only system that is 100% compatible with the graphics processing units (GPUs) that power gaming, content creation, AI and scientific research.
The Post has reached out to Nvidia for comment.
With post wire
