Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns after second alleged affair

Nvidia announced Thursday that Jensen Huang has resigned as CEO, president, and board member, effective immediately, The Verge reported. The company named CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO and appointed former Synopsys CEO Harvey C. Jones as its first board chair. Nvidia said the board is searching for a permanent chief executive and will consider internal and external candidates. Kress said she is committed to continuing Nvidia's leadership in accelerated computing and AI, The Verge reported.

Huang's exit follows two reported extramarital affairs. In early November, Nvidia's board opened an independent investigation after The New York Times described a "close relationship" between Huang and Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive, and reported that U.S. officials thought she was passing information to Beijing, Gadgetry reported in November. The board said at the time it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised. U.S. officials suspected Megaspeed, Alice Huang's employer, of helping China circumvent restrictions on sales of artificial intelligence chips, and intelligence officials recruited her with the specific aim of targeting Jensen Huang, according to Gadgetry. Nvidia has repeatedly insisted that Huang's interactions with Alice Huang were no different from those with any other customer, and Chinese officials have rejected claims that she was used to spy on him. Megaspeed, a Nvidia customer, is under a Commerce Department investigation into possible AI chip smuggling to China, Gadgetry reported in November.

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to dismiss Huang after The New York Times reported a second extramarital affair, this time with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care, Gadgetry reported Wednesday. Video footage may have shown Huang and Powell "being affectionate" at the GTC developer conference in March, Gadgetry added.

Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and built it into the leading supplier of chips for AI, with demand constantly outrunning supply, The Verge noted. He has also enjoyed a close relationship with President Donald Trump, and Nvidia's investment portfolio is worth about $99 billion, The Verge reported. The company's market capitalization slid from about $5.79 trillion in early October to about $4 trillion, Gadgetry reported Wednesday. Dan Ives, a tech stock analyst, warned that Huang's removal could erase $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion from Nvidia's market value. Ives wrote on X on Nov. 9 that Nvidia's value would drop by 25% to 30% 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," Gadgetry reported. Ives estimated the odds of Huang's removal at about 15%.

Congressional scrutiny has been mounting. Three House committee chairs, all Republicans, sent Huang a letter requesting a closed-door briefing on November 18, and Senator Chris Coons posted on X that "Congress will investigate and get answers," Gadgetry reported in November. Coons is set to lead the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, Gadgetry noted. According to Gadgetry, the Republicans gave Huang until November 11 to confirm a briefing date.