Stock futures fell on Thursday after reports of a leadership crisis at Nvidia, dragging down a broad swath of stocks tied to artificial intelligence.

Nvidia dropped 6.8% in early trading. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company's board is preparing to remove CEO Jensen Huang over two extramarital affairs. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Barron's.

The chipmaker is the world's largest supplier of the processors used to train and run artificial intelligence systems, and its stock has become a key gauge for the broader AI trade. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has served as its chief executive ever since, making him the only chief executive in the company's history — a span of continuity few companies of Nvidia's size in the AI build-out have maintained.

Stocks Tied to Nvidia Slide

Investors assessed companies that rely on Nvidia's business, trying to judge what a change at the top could mean for the AI boom that has driven equity markets in recent years.

CoreWeave, a cloud-computing provider that rents out data-center capacity built on Nvidia's chips, sank 6.3%. Super Micro fell 5.2%, and Dell declined 2.8%. Both companies build servers for data centers.

Other AI-linked names also traded lower before the opening bell, including memory-chip maker Micron and memory-card supplier Sandisk. Optical networking firms Coherent, Lumentum and Marvell were down as well, as were hard-drive makers Seagate and Western Digital. Together, the moves showed how widely the AI trade was affected — and how much of the data-center ecosystem, from memory and networking to storage, is built around Nvidia's platform.

Some of Nvidia's rivals moved in the opposite direction. Advanced Micro Devices rose 3.3%, while Broadcom added 1.8% as investors looked to Nvidia's closest rivals. Both companies are prominent suppliers of chips used in AI infrastructure.

What Led to the Drop

Nvidia had already fallen in after-hours trading following a New York Times report that Huang had a second extramarital affair, this time with Nvidia executive Kimberly Powell. According to the Times, the two were seen being affectionate at a hotel during a company conference in March. Yahoo Finance reported that Nvidia shares were down 8.04% at one point.

Huang is also under investigation over a separate affair with a woman named Alice Huang, who is alleged to be a Chinese spy. Huang acknowledged the relationship in a memo to employees.

"I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry," he wrote.

The Information reported on Tuesday that Alice Huang is believed to be tied to a network of Chinese companies, and that the network helped ship $7.5 billion in chip sales to China.

President Trump stood by Huang and called him "an honorable guy." He also said on Monday that the FBI was looking into the relationship.

Nvidia's board sought to reassure investors in a statement on Sunday, saying it has "no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised." The board is reportedly meeting to decide whether to remove Huang. Any move to part with Huang would end the tenure of one of the technology industry's longest-serving chief executives.

Until Nvidia comments directly or the board announces a decision, investors have only the Sunday statement and the president's public backing to set against the reports — with the FBI review he referenced another thread to follow in the days ahead.

Strategy Slides on MSCI Index Rules

Away from the chip sector, Strategy, the Bitcoin-holding company formerly known as MicroStrategy and the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, fell 5.4%. Index provider MSCI set new eligibility rules that would exclude the company from its global benchmarks, which are tracked by fund managers worldwide. The change would take effect at the end of the month. Because funds that track those benchmarks generally mirror the index lineup, exclusion typically requires those managers to adjust their holdings by the effective date.

Source: CoinCentral