Nvidia’s shares fell for a second straight session as scrutiny of chief executive Jensen Huang deepened, a drop that stood apart from gains at rivals AMD and Broadcom.

Nvidia closed down 5.5% at about $168.80, on volume of 420.8 million shares, more than three times its three-month daily average. A separate Yahoo live blog logged the close at $168.89, down 5.47%; the small difference is in the sources. That report described the selling as Nvidia’s most extreme since 2019.

The company said on November 8 that a committee of independent directors will investigate Huang,. The probe followed Financial Times and New York Times reports that US officials believed Huang had a relationship with a Chinese woman recruited to spy for China. Those allegations have not been publicly established. Huang told employees he had an extramarital affair and apologised, the report said, and the board said it has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were exposed. Nvidia and Huang have been sued in the United States over the matter; the reports reviewed do not detail the claims. CNBC reported on Tuesday that the committee has hired the law firm Wachtell Lipton to lead the investigation.

The market reaction has drawn comment. Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld put the odds of Huang remaining chief executive at 50-50, and former SEC chair Gary Gensler said “the key question is whether shareholders were misled,” according to 24/7 Wall St. Nvidia is scheduled to report earnings on November 17.

The drop was not shared across the sector. AMD rose 1.3% to $515.21 and Broadcom gained 3.9% to $331.98, according to Yahoo Finance, which read the divergence as a sign that the selling reflected company-specific worries and not a broader reassessment of AI chip demand. Goldman Sachs called semiconductor stocks “oversold” and named Nvidia, Broadcom and AMD as top buys, the live blog reported. The PHLX Semiconductor Index fell more than 1% at midday.

The wider market was also under pressure from inflation data. Consumer prices rose 0.4% in October from September, above the 0.3% forecast, and core prices rose 0.3% against 0.2% expected, according to the live blog. Treasury yields jumped, with the 10-year at 4.93%, and traders priced an 84% chance of a quarter-point Federal Reserve rate increase in December. The S&P 500 fell 0.38% to 7,520.93 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.74% to 25,065.88.

For enterprise buyers and cloud providers that depend on Nvidia’s chips, the open questions are governance and supply: whether the investigation changes leadership, and whether it affects the company’s dealings with customers and with Washington. Nvidia’s own detailed statements were not available in the reports reviewed. This article is for information only and is not investment advice.