Nvidia board reportedly weighs ousting Huang amid alleged affairs with exec and suspected Chinese spy
Huang's potential ouster would leave a leadership vacuum at the roughly $4 trillion chipmaker he cofounded Image: Markus Schreiber/AP Photo/picture allianceAdvertisementNvidia's board was meeting Wednesday to decide whether to remove co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang, media outlets, led byΒ The Wall Street Journal, reported.
Huang has led the company for more than three decades, turning it from a gaming chipmaker into the dominant supplier of chips for artificial intelligence.
The report comes as Nvidia investigates whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort after reports of an affair with a woman US intelligence reportedly identified as a Chinese intelligence asset. The New York Times reported Wednesday that Huang also had an affair with an Nvidia executive who reported to him.
News thatΒ NvidiaΒ might part ways with Huang sent the company's shares down about 8% in after-hours trading.
A reporter for the financial news outlet Bloomberg said on X that Nvidia's board was working with an outside firm to identify potential successors and considering an interim CEO while it searched for a permanent replacement.
US Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons asked President Donald Trump's administration to preserve records related to Nvidia's chip exports to China, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a letter from the senators. The request also covers records related to Huang's alleged affair with a woman suspected of working for Chinese intelligence.
Huang acknowledged in a note to employees that he had been unfaithful to his wife. He did not publicly name the woman. The New York Times identified her as Alice H., a former executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed who is not related to him. Beijing rejected the espionage allegation.
Shareholders sued Nvidia and Huang on Monday in a proposed class action suitΒ accusing them of concealing the alleged relationship and the risks it posed to the company.
The New York Times identified the Nvidia executive as Kimberly Powell, the company's vice president of health care. Asked about the relationship, Huang told the newspaper, "I don't think you should be talking to me directly," before ending the call.
Nvidia and Powell did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.
