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Jensen Huang (co-founder who spent 33 years turning Nvidia from a graphics chip start-up into the engine of the global AI revolution) has stepped down as CEO. The news follows reports of multiple affairs (one of which is said to be with a woman US intelligence believe is working for China). Nvidia says he’s resigned days before the next earnings announcement. This article examines what has happened, how the story has changed and what has not been
proved.
Huang Steps Down: What happened this Week
Nvidia’s Board has confirmed that Huang will be stepping down as CEO, President and Director of the company, effective immediately. Colette Kress will act as Interim CEO during the search for a new permanent CEO. Harvey C. Jones will now be the first ever Board Chair.
This comes just in time for Nvidia to announce their Q3 results on Tuesday November 17th, without a permanent CEO in place and questions are already being asked in Washington.
The Story Behind the Scandal
The scandal first came to light in October when the NYT published an article discussing how Huang was in a close relationship with a Chinese national working with a Singapore based company that was buying chips from Nvidia. It is claimed that the woman was targeted by China’s spy agency. This caused U.S. officials concern as a classified memo from the spring highlighted the relationship between the two individuals. The woman in question has been identified as businesswoman Alice Huang. However, it has been stated by Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday that the DOJ have not decided if she is a spy.
In an internal memo to staff on Sunday, Huang admitted to being unfaithful to his wife and agreed to an independent investigation. The board said they would investigate if he was involved in an intelligence operation. It has been reported by CNBC that they have hired law firm Wachtell, Lipton to lead the investigation. Huang has denied any security breaches or leaks of Nvidia secrets.
Further issues were raised on Wednesday. The NY Times reported that Huang was in a relationship with Kimberly Powell, VP of Healthcare at Nvidia, who reports directly to him. 5 employees have come forward to make the claim. The pair, who are both married, were allegedly seen being very affectionate with each other at a conference in March. The WSJ reported that the board are working on getting rid of him. The board met late on Wednesday and he was removed by Thursday. Since then, Reuters have reported that he had another alleged relationship with an unnamed employee of Nvidia.
President Trump, who appointed Huang to a science and technology advisory council in March, said “so sad”. The NYT reported that he had a call with Huang on Tuesday and urged him to fight for his position. After his resignation, Trump suggested on Truth Social that Tim Cook from Apple should take over from him. Nvidia have not commented on who they are considering.
From Taiwan to Silicon Valley: Who is Jensen Huang?
Until this month Huang’s story was a classic example of an immigrant triumph in American business. Born in Tainan, Taiwan in 1963, he moved to the United States as a child. He studied engineering at Oregon State University. He earned his Msc from Stanford University and worked at AMD and LSI Logic before creating his own firm.
In 1993 Huang, aged 30, co-founded Nvidia alongside Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. The idea came from a meeting at Denny’s, the restaurant chain where Huang had worked as a dishwasher. The company have since become worth trillions.
As the CEO of the company, Huang is one of the most well-known people in the tech industry and famous for wearing a black leather jacket, giving very informal keynote speeches and letting his management run the organisation. He has dozens of direct reports and never has one-to-one meetings with anyone according to Fortune. When asked this year how he has been able to stay as CEO for so long, his answer was “you don’t get fired.” This now has a completely different meaning.
The Company He Built
Nvidia started as a graphics chip company. However, it really took off in the mid 2000s after the development of ‘CUDA’. This allowed the chips to be used for more general computing purposes allowing developers to utilise them. This was extremely unconventional at the time but proved to be a huge success as the chips turned out to be perfect to train AI models.
When tools like Chatgpt came along, they were the only game in town. Financial data providers have Nvidia at $215.9 bn for 2026 (65% increase from last year). The company has around 42k employees and is based in Santa Clara, CA. The company has crossed the $5trn market cap making it one of the most valuable companies in the world.
This means that the scandal is very significant outside of the boardroom. As Nvidia chips are used within the data centres of almost every major Cloud and AI company, any issues at the top will raise market awareness.
Wall Street and Washington Reaction
The markets have reacted badly, with Nvidia’s shares falling over 13% in early trading on Thursday (Source: Yahoo Finance). Many Wall Street firms have downgraded the company due to leadership issues. However, some have said that the AI boom is larger than individuals and will not affect the company. However, the main issue concerning Washington is not the personal conduct of Huang.
Huang has been very outspoken about how Nvidia can supply its most advanced AI chips to China. This has caused a lot of discussion around chip smuggling and the role companies in Singapore and Malaysia may play. Nvidia states they are fully compliant with US law.
Congress
Three committees in Congress have asked for a private interview with Huang on 1st December. CNBC report that he has agreed to testify. Sen Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is saying that Congress needs answers from Huang and Nvidia.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is asking for a briefing.
Next Steps
The company is currently being run by Colette Kress. She joined in 2013 after 25 years working in finance at Cisco, Microsoft and other companies in the space. She has been a regular in the calls since joining. In a statement she says that her focus is to build on what Huang has started.
Much of the reporting has come from unnamed sources and unconfirmed allegations. There has been no evidence found that there has been any breach of national security. Huang has apologised for the situation and has denied any breach of national security or company secrets.
Author
Shaban Ali
