Nvidia board director cashed out $1 billion in stock before Jensen Huang scandal

Mark Stevens, a board director at Nvidia, sold approximately 4.2 million of his shares, generating around $1 billion in cash. This sale took place over a two-month period in late August and early September, coinciding with Jensen Huang's alleged ties to an alleged Chinese spy. According to Moneywise.com, Stevens initiated the sale on August 31 and September 2, when Nvidia stock was trading between $220 and $226, yielding him $411 million.

The following days saw him sell another $236 million worth of shares as Nvidia traded between $227 and $234, followed by a final sale on September 18 at around $220 per share, adding another $300 million to his earnings. Together, these transactions could have netted Stevens around $947 million. In contrast, Jensen Huang reportedly sold up to six million Nvidia shares last year, earning around $925 million.

This move was part of a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan to avoid insider trading allegations. Since the scandal broke, Nvidia's stock price has plummeted, trading at $162.85 at the time of writing, its lowest in the past year. The initial revelation of the affair sent the stock price plummeting to $151.09, a nearly 25% decrease from its pre-scandal level.

Despite the sale, Stevens still owns around 27.5 million Nvidia shares, making him the second-largest shareholder after Huang and his wife. However, selling shares in a company as a board director does not constitute a crime, and the significant drop in stock value means Stevens would have lost 25% of his investment if he had sold after the scandal broke, resulting in a loss of over $1.5 billion in just one quarter.