Nvidia’s board is preparing to remove chief executive Jensen Huang, the man who co-founded the chipmaker and built it over more than three decades, after reports that he had two extramarital affairs, one of them with a woman suspected of spying for China. The board is set to meet as soon as Wednesday to decide his future, according to people familiar with the matter.
His departure would leave a leadership gap at a company worth roughly $4 trillion, the dominant supplier of the chips powering the global artificial-intelligence boom and a central player in the technology rivalry between the United States and China. Nvidia’s shares fell about 8% in after-hours trading. Including that selloff, the company has shed about $600 billion in stock market value this week since the board announced its investigation.
Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, said removing Huang at once could prove difficult because Nvidia has no succession plan in place. “If Mr. Huang broke the law or violated company policies, the board is likely to act as soon as they have proof,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, a second affair surfaced, this one with a company executive who reported to him, named as Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare. Reached by phone and asked about the relationship, Huang said, “I don’t think you should be talking to me directly,” then hung up. Nvidia and Powell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The reports sharpen a controversy that began with Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, a woman US intelligence has said was involved in facilitating shipments of Nvidia chips to Chinese firms. In a memo to employees on Sunday, Huang acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife and took “full responsibility,” without giving details. The same day, the board launched an investigation into whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation, overseen by independent directors with outside legal counsel and at the time it expressed confidence in him.
US President Donald Trump said he had not discussed the allegations with Huang but voiced support for him, calling him “an honorable guy” who had “done an amazing job for our country.”
