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Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive of Nvidia with immediate effect, following revelations that he had two extramarital affairs, one of them with a woman accused of spying for China.
The company’s board announced on Thursday that Jensen Huang, who co-founded the firm in 1993, had stepped down as president, chief executive and board member. His departure ends a 33-year run at the head of the company, which did not give a reason for it.
Nvidia shares fell as much as 13% in early trading on Wall Street following the announcement.
Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer, will serve as interim CEO and keep her finance role while the board looks for a permanent replacement among internal and external candidates. Harvey C. Jones, a former chief executive of chip design software firm Synopsys, has been named the company’s first-ever board chair.
“NVIDIA’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years,” Kress said.
“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,” Jones said.
The resignation follows Jensen Huang admitting on Sunday to a relationship with Alice Huang, a senior executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed. The two are not related.
In an email to staff, Jensen Huang wrote: “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did.” He added that he supported the board’s investigation and would “cooperate fully”.
US intelligence reportedly circulated a memo this spring alleging that Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, was an operative for China’s Ministry of State Security. She was reportedly being monitored over possibly steering AI chips to China. Megaspeed runs data centres across Southeast Asia and has become Nvidia’s largest customer in the region.
Nvidia’s board said it had “no reason to believe” that either national security or Nvidia’s secrets were compromised, but that a thorough independent investigation would be carried out.
China has rejected the allegations. A foreign ministry spokesperson said in October: “The report in question is based on groundless speculation and is nothing more than an attempt to smear China.”
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported a second affair. It cited video evidence of Jensen Huang being affectionate with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, at a conference in San Jose, California, in the US. Nvidia’s code of conduct tells employees to avoid conflicts of interest and gives “personal relationships” as an example.
Shareholders have since filed a class action lawsuit against Jensen Huang and the company for failing to tell investors about the relationship.
Jensen Huang had repeatedly avoided naming a successor. Nvidia said it would release its quarterly results as scheduled on 17 November.
Our journalists are working on this story and will update it as soon as more information becomes available.