What we know after Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia's CEO
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned from his top post at the chipmaker he co-founded, after reports of the tech titan's extramarital affairs came into the spotlight this week.
One of those relationships has raised national security concerns. The New York Times reported that Huang had an affair with a businesswoman U.S. intelligence suspects to be a Chinese spy, which Beijing denies. Separately, the outlet and later others found Huang was said to have had another affair with an Nvidia executive who reported to him directly — compounding calls for him to step down.
Nvidia announced Huang's resignation on Thursday, effective immediately. The California-based company said that Colette Kress — who has been Nvidia's chief financial officer and executive vice president since 2013 — will step into the role of interim CEO.
The scandal marks the most tumultuous chapter yet for Nvidia, whose high-end chips have emerged as the leading building blocks for artificial intelligence. Huang himself has become a key face in the AI race, both across the industry and often on U.S. President Donald Trump’s side in Washington.
Here's what we know.
Again, Nvidia says that Kress is now interim CEO. Prior to joining Nvidia over 13 years ago, Kress worked at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments in a variety of roles, according to her executive bio on the company’s website.
In a statement about her new post on Thursday, Kress said that Nvidia’s “strength has always come from its people” and that she was “committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.”
Huang co-founded Nvidia, alongside Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, back in 1993 — and, up until Thursday, had led the company ever since, with no clear successor in sight. Huang's ouster has led to a scramble for a new permanent CEO, and Nvidia said that it's considering both “internal and external candidates.”
The company's board of directors also said Thursday that it named its first-ever chairman, Harvey C. Jones, an entrepreneur and venture investor.
Over the weekend, following news reports of Huang's relationship with a woman identified as former Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, Nvidia's then-CEO apologized for being “unfaithful to my wife.”
"My actions hurt her and our children,” Huang wrote in a Sunday email to employees, adding that his colleagues also “deserve better” from him.
Neither Huang nor Nvidia identified who he had been intimate with by name, but the apology arrived shortly after Nvidia said it was investigating whether Huang had been “the target of a foreign intelligence effort.”
Last month, the Times reported that U.S. intelligence agencies discovered Nvidia’s Huang had developed a close relationship with Alice Huang, who also goes by the name Huang Le — and determined she was feeding information directly to Beijing. (Huang is a common surname and the two are not related).
Nvidia initially maintained that Huang would stay on as CEO as the company conducted its investigation. But scrutiny grew late Wednesday, after media reports said Huang had another affair with an Nvidia employee. Huang’s resignation arrived shortly after. The company didn't address either relationship in its Thursday announcement.
Nvidia hasn't provided any notable new updates in its internal review announced Sunday. At the time, the company 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.
Trump was reportedly briefed about intelligence findings involving Huang well before the scandal erupted publicly. But when asked over the weekend whether he wished he had acted sooner on that information, the president said “I don’t think so” and maintained that Nvidia’s CEO was an “honorable guy.”
Trump later said the FBI is looking into Huang's affair with Alice Huang, although where exactly that probe stands is unclear. Meanwhile, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill are calling for further investigations.
Many eyes have been on Nvidia’s ties to Singapore-based Megaspeed International, which prominently touts the companies’ partnership on its website. Last year, Megaspeed was accused of illicitly shipping advanced Nvidia computer chips into China, but in December said there was “no evidence” of such exports.
On Thursday, Megaspeed maintained it takes its obligation to comply with American export control laws “extremely seriously" — and that it was committed to working “constructively and transparently” with the U.S. government.
Singaporean authorities said they questioned Alice Huang and confiscated her passport last year as part of an investigation into Megaspeed. They concluded there wasn’t enough evidence that she had committed a crime, but suspected she provided “inaccurate information” to downplay her role at Megaspeed and barred her from returning to the country.
China, meanwhile, has denied that it attempted to ensnare Jensen Huang. Its Foreign Ministry earlier this week called the spying allegations “unsubstantiated” and said they amount to a smear campaign against Beijing.
Huang has maintained a close relationship to Trump throughout the Republican president’s second term in office. He’s successfully lobbied for looser AI regulation overall — including less strict limits on sales of Nvidia chips to China. And he's among tech CEOs who have dined at the White House, and even traveled on Air Force One.
Trump has called Huang “smart” and “amazing,” repeatedly insisting he join him on foreign trips. After news of his resignation broke on Thursday, the president maintained that Huang had done “done a fantastic job.”
He also chimed in with his own recommendation for Nvidia's CEO seat: former chief executive of Apple Tim Cook, who has similarly remained in Trump's orbit over recent years.
“There is only one man to take his place,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Thursday. “Legend replaces a Legend!”
Critics quickly decried Trump's comments. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the Republican administration had “repeatedly undermined the free market economy” and that Thursday marked the latest example of “Donald Trump weighing in on behalf of his views connected to corporate America, as opposed to focusing on working class America.”
The shockwaves of Huang's exit stress just how few figures hold so much power the AI race. Nvidia is one of the world’s most valuable companies today — and Huang himself (often wearing his signature leather jacket) has risen to fame across the tech world.
Some analysts suspect that the foreign intelligence allegations will strengthen calls in Washington for stricter export controls with China, which could in turn renew trade strains overall. Others have called it a watershed moment for Nvidia, the chipmaker that has long been seen as the crown jewel for powering AI. And questions of security risks facing the companies at the forefront of this technology are piling up.
Nvidia shares were down about 5% as of midday Thursday, after plummeting earlier in the day.
Stephanie Balaouras, group research director for Forrester, said Huang’s resignation from Nvidia isn’t just a test for the company but the AI boom as a whole.
“If Nvidia stabilizes quickly under new leadership, the AI infrastructure boom will have demonstrated resilience," she said. “If its stock, financing relationships, or ecosystem commitments remain under sustained pressure, that would add evidence to the fragile side of the AI bubble ledger.”
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AP Writers Kelvin Chan, Chan Ho-him, Mae Anderson and Lisa Mascaro contributed.
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