Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO after alleged affairs

Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO after alleged affairs Move follows admission of affair with woman alleged to be Chinese spy and reported relationship with employee

From washing dishes at Denny’s to rockstar of AI: the rise and fall of Jensen Huang

Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive of Nvidia after reports of extramarital affairs with an alleged Chinese spy and a company employee.

He will be replaced on an interim basis by Nvidia’s chief financial officer, Colette Kress, until a full-time successor is named.

Shares in the chipmaker plunged by 13% when Wall Street opened, after Huang’s departure was announced. After a partial rebound, they were down 7% in morning trading, wiping more than $320bn (£242bn) off Nvidia’s value on the day and more than $600bn for the week – valuing the company at about $3.9tn.

The statement from Nvidia’s board of directors confirming Huang’s departure did not mention the spying scandal and personal conduct revelations that have enveloped the company, instead paying tribute to Huang’s “profound” contributions to the company he co-founded.

“Jensen’s contributions to Nvidia are profound. Nvidia is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world. The board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry,” the statement said.

It added that Huang had resigned as chief executive, president and Nvidia board member “effective immediately”.

Donald Trump, who had defended Huang at first as the scandal threatened to overwhelm Nvidia co-founder, quickly moved on to potential successors on Thursday, posting on social media that he should be replaced by Tim Cook, Apple’s former chief executive and current executive chair.

“NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place - TIM COOK of Apple,” Trump wrote, adding: “A Legend replaces a Legend!”

The chipmaker’s board earlier this week appointed leading law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct a “thorough and independent” investigation into the relationship with Alice Huang, an Nvidia customer and Chinese citizen who is no relation to the Nvidia boss. Nvidia had previously denied anything unusual about the relationship, but that changed on Sunday when Jensen Huang admitted he had been unfaithful to his wife, Lori, without referring to Alice Huang directly.

The law firm had directed Jensen Huang to continue to helm Nvidia as the investigation was ongoing.

However, late on Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Huang had a separate extramarital affair with a company employee named Kimberly Powell. She was Nvidia’s president of healthcare and was reportedly captured on video being affectionate with Huang at a hotel during a company conference in March.

The report added to the pressure on Huang, as the board called a meeting late on Wednesday to discuss the CEO’s future.

Nvidia’s board directors said it would consider internal and external candidates for the chief executive role, with Cook featuring among potential runners and riders before Trump’s intervention. Cook stepped down as CEO at Apple in September but still has a senior executive role at the company. Rene Haas, the chief executive of Arm Holdings, a UK-based chipmaker, has also been mooted, along with Lisa Su, the CEO of the chipmaker AMD.

Huang ran Nvidia tightly and managed about 60 direct reports. Internal candidates include Kress and Ian Buck, who manages the company’s AI hardware and software products. Huang’s two children, Madison and Spencer, also work at Nvidia but are in their mid-30s and relatively inexperienced. The chipmaker also announced the appointment of Harvey Jones, a tech investor and entrepreneur, as its first ever chair.

Dan Ives, a senior US tech analyst, said the board had done what “it needed to do, which is rip off the Band-Aid and take Nvidia into its next chapter without him” and that the company remained ahead of its competitors.

However, Neil Wilson, an analyst at the investment platform Saxo UK, said Nvidia would need a “great CEO” to replace Huang.

“His technical knowledge and understanding of every last bit of product is basically unique and impossible to replicate,” Wilson said, adding nonetheless that Nvidia was well placed in terms of upcoming products and orders.

Huang’s exit from the company he co-founded in 1993 removes a senior figure in Silicon Valley at a time when the AI arms race between the US and China is at an apex. He owns more than 870m shares, or about 3.6% of the company and was worth $145bn on Thursday morning, according to Bloomberg, making him the world’s 13th richest person.

Unlike many of his contemporaries at other leading tech companies, Huang has dozens of direct reports, an unusual management structure that emphasises his control over the company.

The entire AI ecosphere relies on Nvidia, which engineers advanced chips used to train AI models and power companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. It is also one of the most valuable companies on Earth, with a market cap that hit $5tn at one point last year.

Huang has denied any knowledge that Alice Huang allegedly worked for the Chinese government. The pair were seen together around the world, dining in restaurants and attending meetings, over the past few years. Alice Huang is a businesswoman and head of the Singapore-based datacentre firm Megaspeed, who US intelligence services suspect of being a Chinese asset according to multiple reports.

On the same day that Jensen Hunag admitted having an affair, Nvidia’s board of directors announced the company was launching an investigation regarding reports that he was the target of a foreign intelligence effort.