- AFP, AP and REUTERS
Nvidia cofounder Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) has resigned as president, CEO and board member, effective immediately, the company announced yesterday evening.
Nvidia appointed chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim CEO and Harvey Jones as first-ever chair of the board.
The company said it is initiating a search for a permanent CEO, and will consider external and internal candidates.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks at the Invest in Germany Summit in Berlin on Oct. 19.Photo: Reuters
The move comes after the board met to discuss Huang’s future in light of reports that he had two extramarital affairs, including with a woman accused of spying for China.
The company’s stock has been under pressure for weeks, because of reporting about the affair and questions about a potential bubble in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
Shares slid more than 7 percent to US$160.85 before the opening bell, 34 percent below the company’s all-time high reached just more than a month ago.
Huang has spent years lobbying against curbs on sales of advanced AI chips to China, and US President Donald Trump last year cleared Nvidia’s H200 chips for export there over objections from Beijing’s critics in both parties.
Beijing has rejected the spying allegations.
Nvidia has said it had “no reason to believe” that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, but that its inquiry would examine all available information.
The unfolding story exploded after reports that Huang, who has been married to Lori Huang for more than 40 years, was involved in an extramarital romance. The Nvidia CEO has since admitted to having an affair, reportedly with Megaspeed senior executive Alice Huang (黃樂).
US intelligence reportedly circulated a memo this past spring alleging that Alice Huang was an asset of China’s Ministry of State Security. She was among the attendees at a dinner hosted by Jensen Huang at a Chinese restaurant in Taipei on May 22 last year, during Computex.
She visited Taiwan a total of eight times in 2024 and last year, a Taiwanese minister said yesterday.
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that the Nvidia cofounder was involved in a second extramarital affair, saying there was video evidence of him being affectionate with Nvidia vice president of healthcare Kimberly Powell.
An outside firm is helping the board identify potential replacements, Bloomberg News had reported.
Jensen Huang has repeatedly avoided naming a successor when the question is brought up.
Nvidia shareholders filed a class action lawsuit against Jensen Huang and the AI chipmaker for failing to disclose information about the relationship to investors.
Megaspeed yesterday pledged to cooperate with an investigation into potential risks to US national security.
“Megaspeed is committed to working constructively and transparently with the US government,” a company statement said, adding that it has hired a US law firm to handle a “comprehensive census” of its computer chips and to verify its export controls.
The company faced claims last year that it was illicitly shipping advanced Nvidia computer chips into China, but in December said there was “no evidence” of such exports.