Three businessmen lost their billionaire status because of Huang’s mistresses
The fall in Nvidia shares amid the scandal surrounding Jensen Huang led to a reduction in the fortunes of billionaires associated with the company. Three dined so much that they stopped being billionaires: Colette Cress, Brooke Sewell and Jay Purie
Seven billionaires associated with Nvidia, in total, lost about a third of their fortune amid the scandal surrounding the mistresses of the founder and CEO of the company Jensen Huang. Three of them ceased to be billionaires, and the state of Huang fell by $62 billion, according to Forbes.
After the scandal surrounding Huang’s affair with Chinese entrepreneur Alice Huang and the subsequent resignation of the head of Nvidia, the company’s shares fell by 11% from Sunday and 31% from the October high. Huang's fortune dropped to $145 billion, and he dropped out of the top ten richest people in the world. The combined capital of six other current and former executives and board members fell by $5.6 billion to about $21 billion.
Other major shareholders whose fortunes have shrunk include venture capitalists and board members Mark Stevens and Tench Cox. Their capital decreased by $2 billion and $2.2 billion to $9.7 billion and $7 billion, respectively. Since the start of the year, Stevens has sold $1.4 billion of Nvidia stock before taxes.
Among those who lost billionaire status are Nvidia CFO Colette Kress, who temporarily led the company after Huang left, and former executive vice president of global operations Jay Puri, who retired in August. Puri joined Nvidia in 2005 and was previously seen as a possible successor to the founder.
Forbes estimates that as of November 12, the fortunes of seven billionaires and former billionaires associated with Nvidia were distributed as follows:
Jensen Huang, co-founder and former CEO: $145 billion, down $62 billion Mark Stevens, VC investor and board member: $9.7 billion, down $2 billion. Tench Cox, venture capitalist and board member: $7 billion, down $2.2 billion. Harvey Jones, chairman: $1.7 billion, down $500 million Colette Kress, CFO and interim CEO: $900 million, down $300 million. Brooke Sewell, venture capitalist and board member: $900 million, down $300 million Jay Puri, former executive vice president: $900 million, down $300 million.
On October 6, Nvidia reached a record $5.8 trillion. Three days later, The New York Times reported on Huang's close relationship with Alice Huang, who had ties to Megaspeed, the company that buys Nvidia chips. US intelligence agencies suspect her of cooperating with Chinese intelligence. Beijing denies the accusations. Huang agreed to provide Congress with information about his relationship with her and the company's security protocols.
On November 12, the head of Nvidia resigned as president, CEO and member of the company’s board of directors. Before that there were reports of two more of his novels. According to the NYT and Reuters, we are talking about employees of the company.
Huang founded Nvidia in 1993 with Chris Malachowski and Curtis Reception. Initial investments of partners amounted to $ 40 thousand. The company began with graphics solutions, and in 2006 created the CUDA platform, which allowed the use of graphics cards for calculations outside of computer games. Nvidia supplied equipment to universities and developed tools for researchers. In 2012, two of its graphics cards were used to create a neural network AlexNet, and in 2016, the company transferred OpenAI specialized server for AI.
Against the background of demand for equipment for neural networks, Nvidia became the most expensive public company in the world for the first time in June 2024, overtaking Microsoft. In October 2025, it was the first to reach a capitalization of $ 5 trillion. Huang was on Time’s list of the hundred most influential people in the world, and the Financial Times chose him as the person of 2025.
