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Jensen Huang resigns as CEO of Nvidia
Jensen Huang has resigned as the CEO of Nvidia following recent reports of extramarital affairs, including one involving a woman suspected of spying for China. Here are the details.
In late October, The New York Times reported on Jensen Huang’s “close relationship” with Alice Huang, a former managing director at Singapore-based Megaspeed, whom US intelligence officials reportedly identified as a Chinese intelligence asset suspected of passing information to Beijing.
According to subsequent reports, Chinese intelligence allegedly recruited her to gather information about Jensen Huang and influence his position on selling advanced AI chips to Chinese companies. China disputes the espionage allegations, dismissing them as groundless speculation intended to smear the country.
That said, while Nvidia previously denied any impropriety in their relationship, Huang admitted last weekend to having an extramarital affair in a message to employees, saying, “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did.” He did not mention Alice Huang directly.
In the following days, concerns grew over the potential national security implications of the relationship, in addition to Nvidia seeing its stock plummet.
And while Huang remained CEO as Nvidia’s board commissioned an independent investigation into the allegations, The New York Times reported on Wednesday that he had a second extramarital affair, this time with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare, who reports directly to him.
In the hours that followed, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia’s board was preparing to meet to decide Huang’s future. Soon after, Semafor reported that some board members favored Nvidia CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO, while other reports suggested that Huang’s daughter, Madison Huang, could eventually succeed him. Madison Huang works at Nvidia as senior director of product marketing.
Semafor also named Apple’s chief hardware officer, Johny Srouji, as a potential successor, while Bloomberg reported that Nvidia had hired an outside firm to identify candidates.
Now, Nvidia has officially announced that Huang “has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately.”
The company confirmed that Kress has been appointed interim CEO, while retaining her current responsibilities, until a permanent successor is named. The company is considering both internal and external candidates.