Nvidia Ousts Huang Amid Affairs With 2 Women

New York: Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang, one of the most influential figures in the global artificial intelligence boom, was ousted on Thursday following revelations of two extramarital affairs, including one with a woman suspected of spying for China.

Nvidia announced that its longtime chief financial officer Colette Kress would take over as interim CEO, while board member Harvey Jones, 73, was appointed the company's first chairman. Huang, 63, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and led it for more than three decades, has severed his ties with the company.

Nvidia's board had appointed an outside law firm to investigate the allegations, while US lawmakers called for Huang to testify before congressional committees.

In a statement announcing his departure, the board acknowledged Huang's role in building the company. “Jensen's contributions to Nvidia are profound,” it said, thanking him for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry.

Nvidia has invested heavily in major AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, while supporting financing arrangements for cloud computing providers. Huang also cultivated close ties with US President Donald Trump, who had publicly defended him earlier this week.

The leadership change poses a major succession challenge for Nvidia, which had no clear replacement for its founder. Kress, who joined the company in 2013 after working at Microsoft and Cisco, has primarily handled financial operations.

The board has begun searching for a permanent successor, with industry executives including AMD chief Lisa Su, Arm chief Rene Haas and Micron chief Sanjay Mehrotra emerging as possible candidates.

His departure sent shockwaves through the technology industry and wiped more than $300 billion off the chipmaker's market value in early trading.

Nvidia shares plunged as much as 14 per cent before recovering some losses. The stock was trading 7.5 per cent lower at $160.67 in early New York trading, erasing more than $300 billion in market value.

The crisis erupted after Huang admitted on Sunday to a romantic relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed International, who is suspected by US intelligence agencies of spying for Beijing. Reports of another relationship with Nvidia vice-president Kimberly Powell intensified pressure on the chief executive.

Megaspeed, one of Nvidia's largest Southeast Asian customers, has been under US investigation over suspected smuggling of advanced AI chips into China. Both Nvidia and Megaspeed have denied wrongdoing. There has been no public finding that Huang knowingly participated in espionage.

Huang transformed Nvidia from a manufacturer of graphics chips for video games into the world's dominant supplier of processors powering artificial intelligence. Under his leadership, the company's shares surged more than 7,00,000 per cent since its stock market debut in 1999, while its valuation at times exceeded $5 trillion.

His sudden exit has raised concerns over Nvidia's future and the stability of the broader AI industry, which depends heavily on its processors.

The turmoil spread across technology stocks, dragging down semiconductor companies Micron Technology and Marvell Technology, cloud computing providers CoreWeave and Nebius, and AI-related equipment manufacturers.

Analysts warned that Huang's departure could disrupt Nvidia's extensive network of investments and financing arrangements with AI developers and cloud computing companies.

“Jensen Huang's resignation is a watershed moment for Nvidia, which now has to prove it can maintain its AI dominance without the leader largely responsible for building it,” Emarketer senior analyst Asa Hiken said.

Analysts said the new leadership would face the difficult task of maintaining Nvidia's technological dominance, managing its extensive industry relationships and restoring investor confidence amid continuing investigations.