Nvidia CEO scandal wipes out $600 million in paper gains for India staff
Bengaluru/New Delhi: Just a month ago, Nvidia’s Indian employees were sitting on a record stock windfall. A market panic around artificial intelligence (AI) companies and a scandal around the chipmaker’s chief executive have erased much of it.
Employees at Nvidia Graphics Pvt Ltd, the chipmaker’s Indian branch, held about 7.05 million unvested restricted stock units (RSUs) as on 31 March 2026, according to a Mint review of the company’s financial statement filed with corporate affairs ministry.
At the time, Nasdaq-listed Nvidia’s shares traded at around $170 apiece, making Nvidia’s India RSUs worth about $1.2 billion. Between then and the first week of October, Nvidia’s share price rose to $244, lifting the net worth of the unvested RSUs for India employees to $1.73 billion as of 6 October.
Since then, the on-paper gains for many employees have dwindled, first because of worries over a slowdown in AI progress and, over the past week, because of reports of Chinese spying, no clear plan for leadership replacement, and at least two submissions of affairs by Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, as of Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Nvidia shares closed 2.9% higher than Tuesday, driven by optimism of the narrative around the company stabilizing. However, a New York Times report on a second affair of Jensen Huang’s, coupled with a Reuters report of an imminent board meeting and potential ouster of Huang’s, dragged Nvidia shares to $158.85 apiece.
At this, the unvested RSUs for Indian employees were worth about $1.11 billion—thus losing roughly $600 million in paper gains in six weeks.
Nvidia did not respond to a detailed questionnaire by Mint seeking comment.
Since then, the on-paper gains for many employees have dwindled, first because of worries over a slowdown in AI progress and, over the past week, because of reports of Chinese spying, no clear plan for leadership replacement, and a personal scandal involving Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang.
At Tuesday’s closing price of $168.80, the unvested RSUs for Indian employees were worth about $1.19 billion—roughly $500 million in paper gains were shaved off in six weeks.
To be sure, the figure for Nvidia RSUs received by employees could have changed since March. Nvidia RSUs usually get credited to employee accounts over four years: 25% after the first year and 6.25% every three months after that, according to information the chipmaker gave to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
While the total value mentioned above is for shares not yet credited, some employees must have received some of their RSUs during this time, possibly affecting their earnings during India’s main festive season.
On an average, every $10 drop in Nvidia’s share price reduces the valuation of stocks to be received by its Indian workforce by a total of about $70 million.
The biggest impact could be on many of the long-serving employees at Nvidia India, which had 5590 employees at the end of March 2026. Mint could not independently determine how many of its India employees qualify for RSUs.
The impact of the share price fall depends on when employees received their shares and whether they held on to them. Assuming 6.25% of the shares are credited to employees’ accounts every three months, the last two such releases would have been in the weeks starting 17 June and 16 September, when Nvidia shares traded at $204.42 and $213.90, respectively. Employees who retained these shares would have paid tax on their value when they were credited. Since then, the shares have lost about 17% and 21% of their value, respectively.
The next vesting round is likely in the week of 9 December. Before that, Nvidia will report its next global quarterly earnings on 17 November, which will be closely watched by the market.
The mood at the company, however, remains largely unfazed as of now. A senior executive, who has been in Nvidia India for over a decade, said on the condition of anonymity that while there have been "a few ruffled feathers, the current disruptions have not made a sea change within the company.”
“The general perception is that our core product is an offering that is not only stable but has been built over many decades, and serves a core purpose," the executive said. "Share price dips are temporary, as are stories around big leaders. People of Jensen’s stature always see a lot of interest, and stories around them come and go. That’s neither new, nor worrisome.”
On the slump in employees' on-paper wealth, the executive said: “Most of us who sell our shares over the years do so for big life events: buying a house, a wedding, and so on. So, fewer people would be affected right away, and they probably saw their shares grow a lot over the years. Only their recent gains would have been lost.”
“That’s the thing about share prices—they bounce back,” the executive added.
This loss in value follows an extraordinary run, especially since the financial year 2022 (FY22). A Mint review of nine years of filings from Nvidia’s Indian unit shows employees received about $3.1 billion (over ₹25,000 crore) worth of Nvidia shares between FY18 and FY26, valued on the days they vested.
Nvidia is seen by industry stakeholders to be “the most stable among all the US AI companies,” said Jayanth Kolla, co-founder of Convergence Catalyst, an enterprise AI solutions firm, exuding optimism over its bounceback.
“It has been four years since generative AI became mainstream, and we have not seen a broad-based threat to Nvidia’s dominance in the AI compute market," Kolla said. "Unless there is an extreme circumstance in which Nvidia’s (Jensen) Huang is removed from the company or the espionage claims are substantiated further, Nvidia is likely to bounce back first from the current dip.”
Nvidia shares fell sharply after chief executive Jensen Huang admitted on 8 November to an extramarital affair, amid separate allegations of his links to a woman suspected of spying for China. The controversy followed a sharp sell-off in US technology and AI stocks in October, when the S&P 500 technology sector shed 6.8% as investors questioned the returns on massive AI investments.