Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns over affairs scandal after share price plunges - The Independent

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Billionaire Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned after the tech giant was rocked by reports he had an affair with a suspected Chinese spy.

The 63 year-old’s departure comes in the wake of a scandal that has wiped hundreds of billions of dollars off the chipmaker’s market value, with share prices plunging 10 percent Thursday morning.

Huang - who is one of the world’s richest men, co-founded the company and is its fourth-largest investor with a stake of about 3.61 percent – will exit the Nvidia board as well, with immediate effect.

Announcing the resignation in a statement on Thursday, the company said: “Jensen’s contributions to Nvidia are profound. Nvidia is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world. The board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry.”

The board has started a search for a new permanent CEO and will consider internal and external candidates, the firm said Thursday.

Huang’s problems began when The New York Times reported he had had an affair with former Megaspeed director Alice Huang — no relation — whom U.S. intelligence has said facilitated shipments of Nvidia’s microchips to Chinese firms as part of a foreign intelligence operation.

The newspaper subsequently alleged that the executive had also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, his company’s vice president of healthcare, who is also married.

After the first of the infidelities was disclosed, the executive sent a memo to Nvidia employees Sunday admitting he had been unfaithful to his wife of 40 years, Lori Huang, and said he was “deeply sorry” for the hurt he had case without going into details.

Nvidia’s board responded by launching an internal investigation led by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

China meanwhile denied the espionage claims, calling them “purely unsubstantiated and directed at smearing China.”

Huang’s exit creates a leadership vacuum at the $4 trillion chipmaker he co-founded in 1993 and has led ever since, which is the driving force behind the global AI boom and at the heart of the big tech arms race between the U.S. and China.

Prior to the announcement, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, an expert on corporate governance at Yale School of Management, told NBC News that the executive “has lost his legitimacy to lead internally in the eyes of the company, and he’s lost his external credibility in the eyes of key constituents, including customers.”

However, before the resignation, fellow tech boss Elon Musk said it would be “an honor” to hire Huang, the pair having previously worked together on Tesla, xAI and space-based data center projects.

The world’s richest man recently said of Huang, “old friends are the best friends,” adding: “Jensen rocks.”

It is not yet clear whether Huang’s extramarital affairs will cost him his marriage as well as a his position.

Forbes has estimated Lori Huang could receive a windfall of at least $75 billion if the couple does divorce, putting her in an exclusive tech billionaire ex-wives’ club that also includes the likes of Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott.

The scandal has also reverberated in Washington, with reports President Donald Trump was warned about Huang’s compromised position by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in May when the executive joined their visit to Beijing.

Earlier this week Trump said he had “absolutely no idea” that the first reported affair was with a suspected Chinese spy.

“I think ​he's an honorable guy," Trump told reporters, adding ​that Huang had “done an amazing job for our country”.

Republican leaders of three House committees have meanwhile called for Huang to deliver closed-door testimony on his interactions with the alleged intelligence asset.

And Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons have written to Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnick to demand that all company records relating to Nvidia’s dealings with China be preserved.

Colette Kress, Nvidia’s current executive vice president and chief financial officer, will serve as interim chief executive officer until a permanent successor has been named.

“Colette has helped lead Nvidia through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position,” said Harvey Jones, chair of Nvidia’s board of directors.

“The board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.”