Nvidia's board opened an independent investigation into chief executive Jensen Huang after he acknowledged an extramarital affair, a step that has drawn investor attention to the company's lack of a clear successor, Ars Technica reported, carrying a Financial Times account¹.

The report said the relationship was believed to involve an executive at a large Nvidia customer whom U.S. officials allege was working as a Chinese spy¹. Huang has led the chipmaker he co-founded for more than three decades¹.

In a Sunday statement cited by Ars Technica, the board said it had confidence in Huang and his leadership team and had no reason to believe that national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised¹. People familiar with the matter told the Financial Times, as republished by Ars Technica, that the inquiry would probably be led by director Stephen C. Neal, a former Cooley chief executive¹.

Nvidia shares had fallen more than 5 percent by midday Monday as the company recently ceded the world's most-valuable listing to Apple amid a broader slide in AI stocks, according to the report¹. Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire said on social media that Huang is irreplaceable for America's AI leadership, Ars Technica reported¹.

A fund manager with a large Nvidia position, speaking to the Financial Times, distinguished an affair from a possible compromise of information, saying the latter would have larger implications, while adding that the company would survive Huang's departure but would be different without him¹. Policymakers in Washington were pressing Huang to appear before congressional committees, the report said¹.

Madison Huang, Jensen Huang's daughter and a senior director in Nvidia product marketing, cancelled a planned appearance at a company event in South Korea on Monday, according to Ars Technica¹. The report said Huang owns about 3.6 percent of Nvidia, worth more than $150 billion, without the special voting rights some other founders hold¹. Independent confirmation of the spy allegation, any compromise of secrets, and the outcome of the board inquiry was not in this account¹.