Nvidia stock crashes 8% after a ‘foreign intelligence’ probe initiated by AI company into CEO Jensen Huang

Shares of Nvidia tumbled 8% at the opening bell Monday after the computer chip maker, central to the artificial intelligence race, opened an investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was the “target of a foreign intelligence effort.”

Nvidia’s announcement of the investigation on Sunday followed Huang’s acknowledgment that he had been intimate with a business executive who, according to The New York Times, U.S. intelligence determined was gathering information for China.

China’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the spying allegations Monday, calling them a smear campaign against Beijing.