Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO After Affair Reports Raise National Security Questions
Jensen Huang, who co-founded Nvidia 33 years ago and built it into the chipmaker at the center of the artificial intelligence boom, resigned Thursday as the company's president, ch...
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Jensen Huang, who co-founded Nvidia 33 years ago and built it into the chipmaker at the center of the artificial intelligence boom, resigned Thursday as the company's president, chief executive and a member of its board, effective immediately.
Nvidia's board named Colette Kress, the company's chief financial officer since 2013, as interim CEO. She will keep her finance job while the board searches for a permanent successor and weighs internal and outside candidates. The board also named Harvey C. Jones, a former Synopsys chief executive, as its first-ever chair. The company's announcement gave no reason for the departure and included no statement from Huang.
The resignation caps a week in which reports about Huang's personal life became a national security story. The Associated Press reported that Huang had an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman and former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed International who is suspected of spying for Beijing; the two are not related. The New York Times reported Wednesday that he also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, a senior Nvidia executive. Huang apologized Sunday for being “unfaithful to my wife” and has denied compromising national security or company secrets, CNBC reported. Nvidia's board had already hired the law firm Wachtell Lipton to investigate the intelligence allegations.
A jolt for stocks and retirement accounts
Nvidia shares fell as much as about 14% on Thursday, to a session low of $148.80, before closing at $166.19, down 4.3% from Wednesday, according to Yahoo Finance. The stock had dropped more than 12% at the opening bell, NBC News and Reuters reported, and the company's market value slipped below $4 trillion in early trading before finishing just above that level, at about $4.01 trillion. Rivals AMD and Broadcom rose on bets they could win business, while companies tied to Nvidia, including chip manufacturer TSMC and cloud provider CoreWeave, fell.
The swing matters beyond chip investors. Nvidia remains one of the largest companies in the U.S. stock market, so broad index funds, a staple of many 401(k) and retirement accounts, hold a sizable stake in it. Several Wall Street firms turned more cautious Thursday. KeyBanc analyst John Vinh wrote that Huang's exit “represents a material increase in strategic, organizational, and execution risk,” CNBC reported.
Nvidia said it will still report quarterly results as scheduled on Tuesday, Nov. 17, with an earnings call at 5 p.m. Eastern. That call will be investors' first extended look at the company under Kress.
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Congress wants answers
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, R-Fla., told reporters Thursday that Huang has agreed to testify before Congress before Thanksgiving, with the date still under negotiation, CNBC reported. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he expects oversight to continue despite the resignation, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called for a classified briefing for members.
Separately, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the top Democrats on the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, have opened an inquiry into the Trump administration's approval of Nvidia AI chip sales to Chinese government-linked companies. Huang had been one of President Donald Trump's closest allies in the tech industry and had lobbied to allow chip exports to China.
Why it matters in Virginia
Nvidia's processors are the workhorse of the AI data center buildout, an industry with a large and growing footprint in Virginia, and the scandal arrives as Richmond debates how much more of that growth to allow. On Tuesday, Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Democratic legislative leaders proposed requiring a local vote on any data center that uses more than 25 megawatts and banning nondisclosure agreements between data center companies and local officials, the Virginia Mercury reported. Bills have not yet been filed, and the General Assembly convenes in January.
The industry's local reach is visible in Spotsylvania, where Germanna Community College and Amazon Web Services held a ribbon-cutting this week for the Amazon Skill Yard, a nearly $8 million training building whose programs include data center operations, the Fredericksburg Free Press reported. With Huang's testimony expected before Thanksgiving and Nvidia's earnings due Nov. 17, the next few weeks will offer a clearer read on the company's direction as Virginia lawmakers prepare for the 2027 session.
Sources
Reuters (via Investing.com): Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns
Virginia Mercury: Spanberger, Va. Democrats pitch medical debt relief, data center limits for 2027
Featured image: original illustration created for Go Fredericksburg; it does not depict an actual Nvidia product.
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