Jensen Huang is stepping down
Following reports of a second affair, the CEO of Nvidia is stepping down. CFO Colette Kress will take over the position on an interim basis.
In a press release, Nvidia has announced the resignation of CEO Jensen Huang. This follows a report by the «New York Times» on Wednesday regarding a second affair involving the 63-year-old. The board of directors convened an emergency meeting overnight, where it apparently concluded that Huang is no longer tenable.
Relationship with direct report
According to the report, Huang had an extramarital affair with Kimberly Powell. The 48-year-old, as Vice President, leads Nvidia's healthcare business and reported directly to Huang. Both are married to other people.
Huang and Powell were allegedly filmed exchanging affection at a hotel in San Jose during Nvidia's GTC developer conference in March. According to three informed sources, Huang's security team took the person filming aside. They were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. When contacted by the «New York Times» by phone, Huang only said: «I don't think you should be speaking to me directly.» He then hung up. Powell did not comment.
Source: Nvidia
The relationship is sensitive because Powell is directly subordinate to Huang. Nvidia's code of conduct explicitly lists personal relationships as a potential conflict of interest. It applies to all employees and the board of directors. Violations can lead to termination. In a similar case, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich resigned in 2018 due to a relationship with an employee. McDonald's fired CEO Steve Easterbrook in 2019 for the same reason.
Second scandal following affair with alleged spy
A few days ago, Jensen Huang had already admitted to another affair with a Chinese businesswoman: Alice Huang (no relation) was a top executive at Megaspeed in Singapore. The company has purchased more than 4.8 billion US dollars worth of Nvidia chips since 2024. The US intelligence community claims she passed information to Beijing. According to a secret memo, she was recruited by the Chinese Ministry of State Security. China denies the allegations.
The Nvidia CEO had initially described the contacts as «completely normal». Then the «Financial Times» reported that the relationship had been romantic. On Sunday, Jensen Huang finally apologized in a message to his staff.
On the same day, the board of directors announced an investigation by an independent committee and a law firm. There is «no reason to believe» that national security or trade secrets have been compromised. US President Donald Trump defended Huang as «honorable». According to media reports, he had known about his affair with the alleged spy for months – but did nothing.
Swiss national on the list of potential successors
Nvidia controls about 90 percent of the AI chip market. Huang co-founded the company in 1993 and is the largest individual shareholder with 3.56 percent. He runs the company centrally with about 60 direct reports. Nvidia's stock lost about 8 percent of its market value after the second affair became public. Since its peak in early October, it has lost about a third of its value. That corresponds to over 1.5 trillion US dollars.
Jensen Huang's removal would be an economic risk because the structure is tailored to him as the primary decision-maker. And time is pressing: Nvidia will present its quarterly results on November 17. By then, the board of directors must clearly declare itself for or against the CEO.
There is no clear successor, as Huang has kept too tight a grip on the company. Media outlets are circulating names such as CFO Colette Kress and long-time top executive Jay Purials as options. External possibilities mentioned include Apple's hardware chief Johny Srouji and AMD CEO Lisa Su. Huang's children, Madison and Spencer, also work at Nvidia.
Source: Nazarbayev University
A candidate from Switzerland is also son-in-law Nico Caprez. He has been married to Madison Huang since September and has had a steep career at Nvidia since joining in 2024. He currently holds the position of Vice President for Global AI Infrastructure Growth. Caprez is not entirely unknown to the Swiss public. He was in a relationship with ski racer Wendy Holdener for over nine years and was previously in the national alpine ski squad himself. However, a knee injury ended his athletic career in 2013.
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