Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned. What happens next?

Share RSS Gift After the leather-jacketed CEO, president, and co-founder of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, acknowledged an affair with Megaspeed exec Alice Huang, his company initially announced an investigation. However, The New York Times reported on Wednesday that there was evidence of another affair, this time with an Nvidia executive who reported directly to him. A board meeting that night ended with Huang’s resignation , and Nvidia CFO Colette Kress was installed as the new interim CEO.

Recent reporting noted that since last year, US intelligence reports had identified Alice Huang (no relation) as not only the exec for an AI compute company renting access to Nvidia GPUs, but also a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security. The second report focused on Huang and Nvidia vice president of healthcare Kimberly Powell, claiming that a bystander who recorded the two being “affectionate” at the hotel hosting Nvidia’s GTC developer conference in May was met by Huang’s security workers and asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

In recent years, Nvidia has become a key part of the Trump administration’s AI push, a central figure in negotiations over potential Chinese access to cutting-edge AI hardware, and a company that has used its now $4 trillion-plus market cap to finance other AI companies, including the “neoclouds” like Coreweave who have been some of its biggest customers.

Nvidia’s board announced that Jensen Huang — its longtime co-founder, president, and CEO — has resigned after reports of two extramarital affairs, one with an alleged Chinese spy and one with an Nvidia executive who reported to Huang. Following a late Wednesday night meeting, the board accepted Huang’s letter of resignation as CEO, president, and board member, effective immediately, with current CFO Colette Kress appointed interim CEO. Kress has been with Nvidia since 2013, with previous stops at Cisco and Microsoft.

Nvidia is also changing its corporate structure in Huang’s absence, appointing former Synopsys CEO Harvey C. Jones as the first board chair in its history. The statement does not include a statement from Huang, while Kress is quoted as saying:

Now that Nvidia’s CEO has resigned, the president posted on Truth Social calling for the former CEO of Apple to take over the company, for some reason.

Jensen Huang resigned as CEO of Nvidia this morning, a company he co-founded in 1993. The decision came following the company’s board opening an investigation into multiple extramarital affairs Huang had with a direct report and an alleged Chinese spy. The new, and first, Chair of the Board, Harvey Jones, shared news of Huang’s resignation with the company in an email, which also announced CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO.

You can read the full text of the board’s internal memo and Kress’s first message to employees as interim CEO below.

Aside from his extramarital affairs , the Nvidia CEO also went viral this week over online images that show him wearing a vintage Saint Laurent jacket by Hedi Slimane — a studded switch up from his usual leather outerwear. Vanity Fair confirmed these are AI fakes that carry SynthID markers however, manipulated from photographs taken in June.

Next 1 / 2 Here’s one of the viral AI edits… Image taken from @hidden.ny on Instagram Today, 4:14 AM UTC Richard Lawler

Before a New York Times report claimed there’s evidence of a second affair by Jensen Huang and reports surfaced that Nvidia’s board could meet today to determine his fate, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke to TMZ last night , focusing on asking why our economy depends on “five guys in tuxedos” being able to keep it in their pants.

With reports that the company’s board is meeting to oust Huang from the company he co-founded , Bloomberg reports the board has been working with an unnamed outside firm to identify candidates and is considering naming a temporary chief executive while continuing to look for a permanent replacement.

According to Semafor , the list includes Apple hardware chief Johny Srouji, who was reportedly “ seriously considering ” leaving the company last year before deciding to stay , with some board members favoring Nvidia CFO Colette Kress instead.

Nvidia’s board is preparing to dismiss CEO Jensen Huang following a report from The New York Times about a second alleged extramarital affair , just days after he admitted to a separate affair with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy, The Wall Street Journal reports . The second alleged affair was with an executive who reports to him, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, Kimberly Powell, according to the Times .

The Nvidia board will meet as soon as Wednesday night to decide on Huang’s future at the company, according to the Journal . Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge .

“When reached by phone Wednesday and asked about his relationship with Ms. Powell, Mr. Huang said, ‘I don’t think you should be talking to me directly.‘ He then hung up.” Great stuff, sir. This is the funniest way for the bubble to pop . Do stick around for the NDA anecdote in the kicker — sure seems like his security guards just have a stack of paperwork at the ready for his bullshit!

Update: The WSJ reports Nvidia’s board is “preparing to oust” its CEO.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confronted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about failing to put the alleged Chinese spy-run company on a list of national security concerns, Axios reports , though the Commerce Department denied the interaction. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that Huang’s birthplace of Taiwan has been unnerved by his affair , where some view it as a national security threat, and it could play into upcoming local elections.

As the Nvidia spy saga continues to develop, the board announced it has retained a former US attorney, Joon H. Kim, and his firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (previously seen breaking down the LA Clippers, Steve Ballmer, and Kawhi Leonard scandal ) to perform the previously announced investigation.

Separately, the New York Times is diving into the background of the accused spy , Megaspeed exec Alice Huang, and reporting that despite his claims, Donald Trump was informed in May by Marco Rubio about intelligence info showing Nvidia’s CEO was in a relationship with a spy, and that it was the second time he’d been told in seven months.

As espionage targets go, Jensen Huang is perhaps one of the least surprising on Earth. The Nvidia CEO runs one of the world’s most valuable companies, controls the in-demand technology fueling the AI boom, and is cozy with presidents, CEOs, and all manner of important people. He also wears a cool leather jacket.

Which makes Huang’s admission that he had an affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy — reportedly while her spying was known to US intelligence and even President Donald Trump — all the more shocking. The fallout goes well beyond his marriage, his reputation, or Nvidia itself. Experts tell The Verge the incident threatens to disrupt the entire US AI industry, potentially jeopardize national security, and could undermine America’s efforts to maintain its fragile technological lead over China in AI.

Hayden Field and Lauren Feiner

It’s difficult to overstate Nvidia’s power in today’s AI landscape. The company’s chips are the bedrock upon which advanced AI technology in the US is being built, and demand has consistently outpaced supply for years. Nvidia has also been an influential investor in a wide range of up-and-coming AI companies in recent years, with about $99 billion worth of equity investments in frontier AI labs, neoclouds, infrastructure companies, and more. Its chief executive has even become close with President Donald Trump.

This is why, as both cofounder and longtime CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang would be a valuable target for a foreign adversary with sights on the American AI industry.

President Trump held a White House press briefing earlier today and responded to several questions about his knowledge of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy. Huang said this weekend that he had been “​​unfaithful” to his wife, and the company has opened an investigation into Huang .

Recent articles from The New York Times indicated that Trump had been aware of a relationship between Huang and Alice Huang, the suspected spy, before information about it became public. In October, The New York Times reported that Trump had been briefed “roughly a year ago” on intelligence that Huang and the alleged spy, Alice Huang, had developed a close relationship, but he didn’t do anything with the information. Yesterday, the NYT reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio helped draft a memo to Trump officials about the relationship before Trump visited China in May.

I would prefer that these people’s sex lives were none of my business but I guess we have to talk about Jensen Huang and the National Security Incident. Who could have guessed that the guy who was out here signing titties might not have great judgment about how to behave around women ?

Alice Huang — no relation to Jensen — is a former TV reporter. That was before she became “an executive” at Megaspeed, which bought $4.8 billion of hard-to-get Nvidia chips, starting around the time she was being photographed with Jensen in a Taipei bar in 2024. “To many in the industry, the well-funded push by Megaspeed into A.I. appeared to come out of nowhere,” The New York Times wrote, tactfully . Our girl Alice is also an alleged honeypot who was recruited by the Chinese Ministry of State Security. ( China is denying all this, btw.)

On Sunday, Nvidia announced it was launching an investigation into CEO Jensen Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, an AI executive and agent of the Chinese government.

In addition to the Board of Directors announcing the investigation, Huang sent a memo to Nvidia employees acknowledging the affair. You can read the full text below.

Nvidia has announced that it is opening an investigation into CEO Jensen Huang and his relationship with Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, who was reportedly recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security to spy on the company .

The New York Times reported last month that Huang had developed a “ close relationship ” with the Megaspeed executive, which he later admitted was romantic in nature in a memo to the company. US officials believe she was feeding information directly back to Beijing.

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