Nvidia’s board is believed to have met late on Wednesday to consider removing co-founder and chief executive, Jensen Huang. According to The Wall Street Journal, the board was preparing to oust Huang following reports of a second extramarital affair. The latest allegations follow his earlier admission of an affair with Alice Huang, who is reportedly suspected of spying for China,
The meeting is a quick turn from Sunday, when the board publicly expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team while it opened an inquiry. Within days, that support appears to have changed. Under Nvidia’s bylaws, directors can remove Huang “with or without cause” by majority vote. The board has 11 members, and all but Huang are classed as independent.
How the Alice Huang and Megaspeed Controversy Began
The story started with a New York Times report on Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, who is not related to him. She previously led Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based firm that bought billions of dollars’ worth of Nvidia chips and hardware, and US intelligence agencies have reportedly believed for months that China’s Ministry of State Security recruited her. US officials have also said she was involved in facilitating chip shipments to Chinese firms. The Chinese government has denied the allegations, calling them baseless and slanderous. In a message to staff on Sunday, Huang admitted he had been unfaithful to his wife and wrote that there was no excuse for what he did. He did not name the woman involved. US President Donald Trump later said Huang told him he had no idea the woman was a spy.
Jensen Huang’s Second Affair Report Shifts the Nvidia Board
Meanwhile, pressure intensified on Wednesday, when reports circulated that Mr Huang had also had an extramarital relationship with a senior Nvidia executive, Kimberly Powell, who reported directly to him. Powell joined Nvidia in 2008 and leads the company's healthcare division.
A relationship with a direct report raises governance questions separate from the intelligence concerns. Corporate governance experts have said Huang’s alleged relationship with Alice Huang appears to breach Nvidia’s code of conduct. The second report reportedly changed the board’s thinking. Directors had taken a cautious approach while investigating, but the new allegations appear to have pushed them toward removal.
Nvidia Stock Falls as Investors Price In a Founder Exit
Shares fell more than 8 per cent in after-hours trading to $159.51, extending a steep slide since the company announced its probe on8 November. Estimates of the total value lost vary by outlet, from more than $300bn to about $600bn, depending on timing and what is counted.
The matter has drawn attention well beyond the boardroom. Trump said the FBI is also examining the romantic and business ties between Huang and Alice Huang. Congressional lawmakers have demanded that Huang appear at a closed-door briefing about his dealings with her. Lawmakers have also pushed for tighter limits on chip exports to China, a policy fight in which Nvidia sits at the centre.
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Who Will Replace Jensen Huang?
Huang, 63, owns about 3.6 per cent of Nvidia and has dozens of direct reports, which shows how tightly he controls the business he has built over more than three decades. The company is worth roughly $4 trillion and supplies the chips at the heart of the global AI boom, yet it has no obvious successor. Bloomberg reported that the board has been working with an outside firm to identify potential replacements.
Names being discussed as potential successors include executive vice-president and chief financial officer Colette Kress and Ian Buck, the engineer behind Nvidia’s CUDA software platform.
Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013, following nearly 25 years in finance roles at major technology companies. Buck, who joined the company in 2004 after completing his PhD at Stanford, is vice-president of hyperscale and HPC, overseeing a multi-billion-dollar business focused on AI data centre products. At Stanford, he led the Brook project, an early precursor to general-purpose GPU computing. Many analysts identified Kress as the natural choice for an interim appointment.
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