UPDATED: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saw his wealth plummet by nearly 11% on Tuesday following a global drop in tech stocks.

Huang’s net worth slumped by about $10bn to $94.9bn, according to Bloomberg. 

The precipitous drop in the Nvidia CEO’s wealth echoed the 9.5% drop in the share price of the chipmaker he co-founded.

The stock fell a further 2.4% in after-hours trading.

Nvidia’s $279bn decline was the largest monetary fall for a single stock in history, Deutsche Bank said.

The plunge in the share price of the Nasdaq-listed AI chip maker was partly down to a Bloomberg report that it has been subpoenaed by the US Justice Department, which is investigating Nvidia’s dominance in artificial intelligence chips.

However, the chip designer said on Wednesday it has not been subpoenaed, but said it was “happy to answer questions regulators may have about our business”.

The success of Nvidia’s products — along with struggles by rivals to field alternative AI chips — has made the firm a crucial part of the supply chain for some of the biggest companies in the world.

Why the Justice Department is investigating 

The DoJ is assessing whether Nvidia has used its power as the primary supplier of artificial intelligence data centre chips to disadvantage rivals.

In particular, whether Huang’s company has made it harder to switch to other chip manufacturers and penalised buyers who do not exclusively use its chips. 

In a statement, Nvidia said it “wins on merit, as reflected in our benchmark results and value to customers, who can choose whatever solution is best for them”.

Receiving a subpoena means the US government is step closer to launching a formal complaint, which could take months if not years. 

Dominant market position

Nvidia, which was founded in 1993 and based in Santa Clara, California, has become the leader in the race to produce chips which power generative AI. 

It has supplied chips to more than 40,000 companies hungry for superfast computing speeds, from carmakers and drug discovery businesses, to weather forecasters and social media groups.

In the first quarter of this year, Nvidia controlled 88% of the graphics processing unit (GPU), up from 84% one year ago, according to Jon Peddie Research.

Nvidia briefly became the most valuable public company in the world in June, when it was valued at $3.35tr. 

It is still the world’s third-biggest firm by market value after Apple and Microsoft.  

Huang was brought up in Taiwan and Thailand before emigrating to the US, where he co-founded the firm in 1993.

Nvidia’s employees have described their CEO as a “demanding” boss, someone who is “not easy to work for”.

Back in April, Huang told the CBS 60 Minutes show that these adjectives describe him “perfectly”. 

Huang said: “It should be like that. If you want to do extraordinary things, it shouldn’t be easy.”

However, before we all reach for the Kleenex, $10bn is a mere bagatelle for the Nvidia co-founder. 

Huang is still the world’s 18th-richest person, whose wealth has grown by $51 billion just this year, even after the rout in Nvidia’s share price, according to Bloomberg.