Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns after reports of second affair deepened scandal

Huang, who steered Nvidia to enormous success, ultimately undone by his own love lifepublished at 14:20 GMT

Zoe Kleinman
Technology and AI editor

If I’d told you this time last week that Jensen Huang was about to leave Nvidia, you would not have believed me.

The man who co-founded this enormously successful AI chip company, working tirelessly to build it from the ground up, steering it through some disastrous times with endless energy and ruthless determination, shaping into the giant it has become, ultimately undone by his own love life.

It’s an extraordinary tale and a strangely old fashioned one for a tech firm with its sites set on the future.

Colette Kress, who takes over for now, will be a familiar face internally and that must feel reassuring.

She’s worked at the firm for 13 years and for those who follow Nvidia’s considerable finances, she is often present on earnings calls. She is a billionaire in her own right.

But she’s not an engineer and will undoubtedly have a very different leadership style to the demanding boss that was Jensen Huang. She will also have to convince investors that its business as usual for Nvidia, and the innovation for which it is renowned will continue at pace.

A wobbly Nvidia would be bad news for the entire AI industry because its ever-advancing chips drive the most powerful AI models.

As for Jensen himself - we have to assume the investigation into his relationship with the woman accused of being a Chinese spy will continue, and the results of that may well determine what he does next. He's probably not short of offers at the moment - I expect Nvidia's rivals can't believe their luck.

Colette Kress, who has just been made the interim CEO of Nvidia, says that she is committed to building on the "the extraordinary foundation" that Jensen Huang has created.

Kress has been the executive vice president and chief financial officer at Nvidia since joining the company in September 2013.

The company's board says that she has led the company's finance organisation and "played a key role in Nvidia's growth and evolution".

Before joining Nvidia, Kress spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at leading technology companies, including Cisco and Microsoft.

After being appointed as interim chief executive officer, Kress says: "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.

"We will continue advancing the work that has made Nvidia a leader in accelerated computing and AI, and execute on the opportunities ahead. Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders."

Rachel Clun
Business reporter, in New York

Nvidia shares are down more than 10% in pre-market trading, and all eyes will be on the company’s share price as the market opens at 09:30 ET (14:30 GMT) following the news Jensen Huang has resigned.

The rolling news of his alleged affairs has affected the firm’s share price for most of the week as investors have fretted over who could run the company should Huang leave.

The board may be hoping that an answer here - that current chief financial officer Colette Kress will fill in as interim chief executive - will allay some of those investor concerns.

The statement from Nvidia's board, announcing the resignation of Jensen Huang as its chief executive, praised his work at the helm of the company.

"Jensen’s contributions to Nvidia are profound," it says.

"Nvidia is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world," adding the board and company "thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry".

"We will continue advancing the work that has made Nvidia a leader in accelerated computing and AI, and execute on the opportunities ahead," the interim CEO Colette Kress says.

"Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders."

More now on the news that Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive of Nvidia, announced by its board of directors moments ago.

Colette Kress has agreed to serve as interim CEO, the board says. She had already been the company's current executive vice president and chief financial officer.

"Colette has helped lead Nvidia through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position," says Harvey Jones of the board of directors in the statement, who the company says has been elected as its first-ever chair of the board.

We'll bring you more from Nvidia's statement shortly.

Jensen Huang has resigned from his leadership roles at Nvidia, the company's board has announced.

Katie Williams
Live reporter

I asked Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, what the latest Nvidia turmoil means for people’s money.

He says "lots of people probably have this stuff in their pension, whether they know it or not".

Worth about $4.2tn, Nvidia is one of the "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks, along with Google’s parent company Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Tesla.

Mould says these seven stocks collectively make up more than 30% of America’s S&P 500, which tracks the share prices of the largest publicly traded US companies.

And US equities make up a significant portion of many people’s pensions.

But Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, tells me that even though Nvidia is an "important" part of the US market, a diversified portfolio is built to "ride out the inevitable ups and downs of individual companies".

Nvidia’s share price has fallen compared with five days ago, while the Nasdaq Composite, which is heavily weighted towards tech companies, has risen by more than 4%, external.

Britzman also expects some "short-term turbulence" for Nvidia, but says "demand for AI isn't going anywhere".

On The Global Story, host Asma Khalid speaks to Randy Schriver and Mike Kuiken of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission about the national security implications and what the Nvidia scandal could mean for America’s approach to selling advanced chips to China.

BBC economics editor Faisal Islam also offers a behind-the-scenes look at Jensen Huang, the man at the centre of it all, and his extraordinary influence over the global AI race.

You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

Matt Spivey
Live reporter

Jensen Huang's position as CEO of Nvidia hangs in the balance after reports of two affairs, one of which may have been with an alleged Chinese spy.

Let's strip this story back to the basics.

Who is Jensen Huang? Born in Taiwan, Huang, 63, co-founded the US tech giant Nvidia in 1993 and has led it to become a multi-trillion-dollar company. He has been dubbed the "Taylor Swift of tech" and has an estimated net worth of $145bn (£109bn).

What is Nvidia? It's a leading provider of advanced computer chips, which are critical to technologies including video games, cloud servers and, most importantly, AI. Worth more than $4tn, Nvidia is the world's second-most valuable company.

The two reported affairs: Huang is reported to have had an extramarital affair with alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang. He admitted to being unfaithful in an apology email to Nvidia employees, but didn't name the woman involved. A second alleged affair with an employee has been reported by the New York Times.

The impact: Nvidia shares have plunged, down almost 7.5% in after-hours trading. The company has launched an investigation into the scandal, and the board is reportedly meeting to decide Huang's future.

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang is seen as central to the company's success - and this is linked to how the company is structured.

Let's take a look at how it works.

The “flat” structure

In interviews, Huang has spoken about Nvidia's “flat” structure.

Unlike companies with more typical hierarchies, Huang has no second-in-command. Instead, dozens of people report directly to him.

The board

Nvidia's board has 11 members, including Huang. Its powers include hiring and firing the company's chief executive and overseeing company strategy.

All board members except Huang are considered independent, meaning they have no relationship that the board considers would interfere with independent judgment.

Regulatory documents also note that all members have an “equal voice” and that there is no permanent board chairperson.

Huang owns more than 3% of Nvidia's stock

According to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing from June, external, Huang owns more than 870 million Nvidia shares, making up just over 3.5% of the company's total stock.

Osmond Chia
Business reporter, Singapore

To get a better picture of what happens next, I’ve spoken to market analysis expert Anna Wu.

Asked whether Jensen Huang would leave Nvidia, Wu says "the board's tone has shifted sharply in a matter of days", from public confidence to weighing up his removal from post.

"That makes a departure increasingly likely."

However, she notes that, whatever happens, Huang's influence won’t disappear overnight, as he will remain on the board and be one of the company’s major shareholders.

On who would replace him, Wu says there’s no obvious successor.

"The most realistic near-term route is an interim leader from Nvidia's long-serving inner circle, possibly a co-CEO structure pairing a finance and operations veteran such as Colette Kress with a product and technology leader such as Ian Buck."

Any changes will lead to "near-term turbulence", but Nvidia’s core asset is its chips, and there is no practical substitute at scale in the near term, she adds.

"Looking through the volatility, I remain confident in Nvidia's outlook."

• Read more: Who could replace Jensen Huang as Nvidia's chief executive?

Nvidia share price has fallen by nearly 8% in four days - and it could get worsepublished at 11:54 GMT

Dearbail Jordan
Senior business and economics reporter

What a difference four days makes.

In that time, Nvidia’s share price has fallen by nearly 8%, wiping hundreds of billions of dollars off the value of the AI chip giant.

And it could get worse.

After reports emerged that Nvidia boss and co-founder Jensen Huang allegedly had a second extramarital affair and there is now speculation about his future at the firm, the company’s share price plunged a further 8% in after-hours trading on Wall Street.

If Nvidia’s shares open at the overnight price, they’ll have fallen from just over $188 each at close of play on Friday - before the company’s weekend announcement, external - to $158. The company’s market value would tumble from $4.5 trillion to $3.8 trillion.

That would put Nvidia on level pegging with Microsoft in terms of market value, but leave them both behind Apple.

Philippa Wain
Technology reporter

There are 10 Nvidia board members who will decide the fate of CEO Jensen Huang.

Stephen Neal is Nvidia’s “lead director”, a role similar to that of a chairperson, designated each year. He’s now in the spotlight as the key convener of the board.

Neal has a legal background, having had a long career at Cooley LLP, one of Silicon Valley’s most influential law firms - perhaps useful experience as discussions of reputational risk take centre stage.

There are also the long-serving directors. Tench Coxe and Harvey Jones have been at the company for 33 years, since its formation alongside Huang.

Mark Stevens is also one of Nvidia’s longest-serving directors, having been there at the beginning, though he briefly left for two years and rejoined in 2008.

These founding-era directors are also by far the biggest shareholders on the board, with vast fortunes tied to the performance of the company and its CEO.

The majority of directors are men, but four women make up just over a third of the board.

The longest-serving of them is Dawn Hudson, a former senior leader at Pepsi-Cola.

The head of technology group Siemens says it would continue working with Nvidia, regardless of how the situation with its chief executive, Jensen Huang, plays out.

"We are talking about a relatively big company with a large team," chief executive Roland Busch tells reporters.

"So the projects we have, they will continue independently of what's happening at Nvidia."

Downplaying Huang's role in the projects Siemens shared with Nvidia, Busch says the world is "too much focused on one individual".

"We have Nvidia people working together with us on our side.

"We have joint projects. And honestly, I don't see any kind of influence. It's a partnership between companies."

As Zoe Kleinman has just mentioned, Nvidia is holding a board meeting that could see Jensen Huang removed as chief executive.

But finding the right person to lead the business Huang helped create more than three decades ago will be a challenge.

Here are some potential successors who have emerged:

• Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer
• Chris Malachowsky, Nvidia’s co-founder
• Someone from outside the company, including senior figures at Apple and Arm

You can read more about them in our news story.

Three possible outcomes from Nvidia's board meetingpublished at 10:48 GMT

Zoe Kleinman
Technology and AI editor

It’s a tough day to be on the board at Nvidia. There are only 11 members (including Huang himself), and they must reach a majority vote on whether to remove Jensen Huang, ideally before the stock market opens at 14:30 GMT today.

There are three possible outcomes:

Option one: they keep Jensen Huang in post and hope to ride out the storm. Nvidia has been in far worse financial straits before and pulled itself back from the brink, and Huang still has considerable support in Silicon Valley. I met two executives from another big US tech firm yesterday who seemed pretty relaxed about his future and expected him to stay.

Option two: they dismiss Huang and appoint a successor, probably on an interim basis while they form a longer-term plan. There are a few names being bandied about, ranging from Nvidia’s chief financial officer, Colette Kress, who has been by his side on many an earnings call, to Rene Haas, the current boss of UK-based chip designer Arm. Whoever took the job would have to start strong.

Option three: Huang resigns. In this scenario, he could suddenly become a formidable opponent to the company he co-created, especially if he jumps ship to one of its rivals. Elon Musk has already said it would be "an honour" to work with him at SpaceX.

Our colleagues at BBC Newsday have been speaking to Michael Kovrig - a former Canadian diplomat who was held in China for more than 1,000 days in what was seen as a retaliatory act by the Chinese government.

On Jensen Huang's alleged affair with Alice Huang, who is linked to a Singaporean company and was reportedly a Chinese spy, Kovrig says there were "probably actually two things going on".

The first, he says, is that Alice Huang was possibly "some kind of 'white glove' - or someone that is fronting for other commercial entities in China that were trying to acquire these [Nvidia] chips".

Kovrig says the allegations about being a Chinese spy also suggest "that she was also been used by the MSS [Chinese Ministry of State Security]. They would most likely have been trying to use her access to gain information and insights about the thinking of Nvidia."

As a reminder, we haven't heard from Alice Huang since the allegations emerged - she is reportedly now in Beijing. Earlier today, her former company in Singapore, Megaspeed, said it was "committed to working constructively and transparently with the US government".

On Sunday, Jensen Huang admitted having an affair - although he did not say with whom. Since then, reports of a second affair, with a woman at his own company, have emerged.

Beijing warns US over further restrictions on tech sales to Chinapublished at 10:04 GMT

Laura Bicker
China correspondent

Access to advanced computer chips has become a key battleground between Beijing and Washington.

The Trump administration decided last year to permit sales of advanced Nvidia H200 chips to China, urged on by chief executive Jensen Huang.

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing warned Washington that the spying allegations should not become a reason for the US to once again impose restrictions on technological sales to China.

President Xi Jinping is due to welcome Donald Trump to the country next week and the Foreign Ministry seems keen to keep the summit on track.

China "stands ready to work with the US" to reach common understandings, spokesperson Mao Ning added during the daily press briefing.

• For context: the US government gave permission for the H200 chip to be sold in China in January. The company's more powerful B200 and B300 chips cannot be legally exported to China

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

Separate from the affair with alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been accused of having a second affair with an executive at his company.

This was first reported by the New York Times, external, which said it had spoken to five people who had worked at Nvidia on condition of anonymity.

The newspaper reported that Huang had a relationship with an Nvidia executive who reports directly to him.

Sources also told the New York Times that the pair were captured "being affectionate" on video by a bystander at a hotel in California.

According to the report, Huang’s security workers asked the bystander to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The newspaper noted that it had not seen the video.

Sources also said that the relationship between Huang and the woman had been discussed inside the company.

The New York Times said that when it called Huang on Wednesday to ask about his alleged second affair, the CEO replied "I don’t think you should be talking to me directly," and hung up.

Tessa Wong
Asia Digital Reporter, Singapore

Megaspeed, the Singaporean company associated with suspected Chinese spy Alice Huang, has issued a statement days after Nvidia launched an investigation into Jensen Huang’s affair earlier this week.

Its chief executive, Tan Yong Pong, also known as James Tan, said the company "takes its compliance obligations under US export control laws extremely seriously" and is "committed to working constructively and transparently with the US government".

He said the company had co-operated with US Commerce Department inspections.

The company says it has engaged an unnamed "leading US law firm" to conduct a census of its graphics processing units and verify its compliance practices.

The statement does not address allegations that Alice Huang is a Chinese spy. The BBC has previously sent queries to Megaspeed.

Megaspeed is a Singapore-based company that runs data centres across South East Asia and is the biggest buyer of Nvidia chips in the region.

It is suspected of allowing Chinese companies backdoor access to these chips, which the firms are not allowed to obtain under US export curbs.

Megaspeed was at one point run by Alice Huang, before she transferred ownership to Tan.