Nvidia board weighs firing CEO Jensen Huang over second alleged affair

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Nvidia’s board is preparing to dismiss CEO Jensen Huang, The Verge reported, after The New York Times reported a second alleged extramarital affair. The board could meet as soon as Wednesday to determine his future, the Journal said. PCMag wrote that the board is preparing to fire Huang following the latest revelation.

The latest news comes days after Huang acknowledged a separate affair with a woman described as a suspected Chinese spy, The Verge noted. The Chinese government reportedly recruited Alice Huang, a former executive at Megaspeed, to spy on Huang, and she allegedly reported directly to China’s main intelligence agency, PCMag wrote. Gadgetry reported in November that the board began an independent investigation after the Times initially described a “close relationship” between the CEO and Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, with U.S. officials believing she was passing information to Beijing. Nvidia has repeatedly denied that Huang’s meetings with Alice Huang were anything beyond typical business, and Chinese officials have denied using her to spy on him, Gadgetry added. The board stated it had no indication that national security or company secrets had been compromised.

The second relationship involved Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, according to the Times. Video footage may have shown the two “being affectionate” at the GTC developer conference in March, according to The Verge. Huang declined to comment to the Times, PCMag reported.

Dan Ives, a tech stock analyst, warned that removing Huang could wipe between $1 trillion and $1.2 trillion from Nvidia’s market value. In a Nov. 9 post on X, Yahoo Finance reported, Ives said Nvidia would be worth 25% to 30% less without Huang and that the move would “change the future direction of the company and create a dramatically different competitive environment around AI GPUs globally especially for China.” Ives put the chance of Huang being removed at roughly 15%.

Nvidia, a prominent developer of GPUs that power AI data centers, saw its market capitalization slide from about $5.79 trillion at the start of October to about $4 trillion, Yahoo Finance noted. In a message to employees on Nov. 8, Huang admitted being “unfaithful to my wife” and said, “You deserve better from me,” Yahoo Finance reported. Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Verge or Moneywise, according to those outlets.