Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO – at a glance
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Jensen Huang resigned on Thursday as chief executive of Nvidia after reports of extramarital affairs with an alleged Chinese spy and a company employee, bookending a stunning fall from grace of one of the leading figures of the AI boom. He will be replaced on an interim basis by Nvidia’s chief financial officer, Colette Kress, until a full-time successor is named.
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Shares in the chipmaker plunged by 13% when Wall Street opened, after Huang’s departure was announced and ricocheted through the global economy. After a partial rebound, they were down 7% in morning trading, wiping more than $320bn (£242bn) off Nvidia’s value on the day and more than $600bn for the week – valuing the company at about $3.9tn.
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A statement from Nvidia’s board of directors confirming Huang’s departure did not mention the spying scandal and personal conduct revelations, instead paying tribute to Huang’s “profound” contributions to the company he co-founded. “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 statement said. It added that Huang had resigned as chief executive, president and Nvidia board member “effective immediately”.
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Donald Trump, who had defended Huang at first as the scandal threatened to overwhelm Nvidia co-founder, quickly moved on to potential successors on Thursday, posting on social media that he should be replaced by Tim Cook, Apple’s former chief executive and current executive chair. “NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place – TIM COOK of Apple,” Trump wrote, adding: “A Legend replaces a Legend!” Nvidia’s board directors said it would consider internal and external candidates for the chief executive role, with Cook featuring among potential runners and riders before Trump’s intervention. Rene Haas, the chief executive of Arm Holdings, a UK-based chipmaker, has also been mooted, along with Lisa Su, the chief executive of the chipmaker AMD.
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In the US, the Democratic House minority leader – expected to become speaker in the next Congress – Hakeem Jeffries said lawmakers should receive a classified briefing on the scandal. “We need a classified briefing made available to members of Congress as it relates to the Nvidia situation and to the extent that our national security has been compromised,” Jeffries said at his ongoing press conference. “The American people deserve answers, and we’re going to work to make sure that happens.”
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Updated at 12.46 EST
Key events
Alice Huang may have owned stakes in businesses in China that benefited Nvidia’s biggest Chinese competitor, Huawei, while she was in business with Nvidia and also reportedly having a romantic affair with its ousted CEO Jensen Huang, CNBC reports.
The connection was first uncovered by analysts at intelligence firm Tesari, which provides intelligence research to private companies and the US government, and shared with CNBC.
Per CNBC’s report: “The connections may raise questions about Alice Huang’s intent and conduct in her relationship with the CEO and whether Jensen Huang knew his romantic partner was closely connected with his competition. Jensen Huang has acknowledged having an affair, though the precise timing of his relationship with Alice Huang is unknown …
“Businesses connected to Alice Huang were linked with supplying Nvidia computing power to Huawei, according to documents reviewed by CNBC, around the same time she and Jensen Huang were first publicly seen together in December 2023.”
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Updated at 15.38 EST
Jensen Huang had ‘intimate relationship’ with second employee, Reuters reports
Ousted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had an intimate relationship with a second employee, two people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
The revelation follows two other extramarital affairs that led to his dramatic resignation today, one with Alice Huang, who US intelligence suspects of being a Chinese spy, and another with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice-president of health care.
Reuters is not naming the second employee. Attempts to reach the woman were not successful.
Nvidia declined to comment for Reuters’ story. Powell, Jensen Huang, and a representative for Nvidia’s board did not reply to requests for comment. Alice Huang could not be reached for comment.
The Guardian has not independently verified this report.
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Updated at 15.46 EST
Chris Stein
The Trump administration faces an investigation of its scheme to take a 15% cut from any Nvidia chip sales going to China, as part of a deal to secure export licenses for the semiconductors.
Under the scheme, Nvidia chips made in Taiwan could be sold to Chinese companies if they were imported to the US first for a security review. This also made them subject to a 25% tariff under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which was aimed at dealing with imports that threaten national security. The commerce secretary could then grant an export licence to sell the chips to China.
Two US Democratic senators are now demanding Trump officials retain all records relating to the scheme as the fallout from now former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with a suspected Chinese spy continues to grow.
Senate finance committee ranking member Ron Wyden and House ways and means committee ranking member Richard E. Neal said they were beginning to investigate following reports of the affair – which led to Huang’s resignation on Thursday.
One focus of the investigation appear to be report that both commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and Donald Trump were briefed about the relationship but granted export approvals anyway.
In a statement, Wyden and Neal said:
The Trump administration’s ostensible attempt to mask an unconstitutional export tax as a national security tariff action – benefitting both Nvidia and the Chinese government – raises serious concerns within our committees’ jurisdiction over matters relating to taxation and tariffs.
Congress wrote Section 232 to give the president a tool to take action against imports he has determined to pose a national security threat; Trump’s use of the statute appears to have done the opposite, undermining US national security and putting Americans at risk.
ShareNils Pratley
double quotation markHalf the tech world made up its mind before the facts could be assessed properly. Jensen Huang was “irreplaceable”, said the chorus at the start of this week. Nvidia would melt without the co-founder’s brilliance, apparently. The chipmaker’s board had to find a way to save its genius for the sake of corporate America and the entire AI universe.
It was always nonsense because, after the passage of only a few days since his confession of infidelity, Huang looked less like a towering corporate titan and more like a political liability.
An extramarital affair is not usually a resigning matter in itself – saintliness is not an absolute requirement of the job. But the circumstances here were different. A relationship with the Chinese boss of a Singapore-based firm suspected of smuggling Nvidia chips into China? That displayed recklessness on top of mere unfaithfulness.
Did he know the Megaspeed executive, Alice Huang (no relation), was regarded as a Chinese spy by US officials? It hardly matters. In the ultra-political world of in-demand AI computer chips, there were enough reasons for him to be careful in the extreme. The conflict of interest, and the risk of landing Nvidia in a quagmire of national security inquiries in Washington, would have been obvious.
Reports of a second affair with a senior Nvidia employee compounded matters – US companies tend to be sensitive about such relationships. But the company’s directors might also have wondered what else could be revealed in coming weeks. Rule number one in these situations is to get all the bad news out on day one.
The kneejerk reaction to Jensen Huang’s resignation was 13% off the share price. That was understandable – some investors truly believed the “irreplaceable” thesis. However, sitting in Nvidia’s boardroom, the job was not to worry about the initial stock market response but about what was best for the business. For multiple reasons, it was time to “rip off the Band-Aid and take Nvidia into its next chapter”, as Dan Ives, a senior tech analyst, put it.
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Options traders cashed in parts of their bets against Nvidia and positioned for a longer-term share price recovery on Thursday, after CEO Jensen Huang announced he was stepping down.
“Nvida’s competitive advantage and customers don’t disappear overnight,” said Seth Hickle, chief investment officer at Mindset Wealth Management.
“The market is trying to determine whether this is a temporary leadership crisis or something that fundamentally changes the AI investment thesis.“
Options give holders the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell the underlying stock at a set price before a certain date.
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Senior White House officials are discussing whether the commerce secretary Howard Lutnick should be pushed out in the wake of the spy scandal surrounding Nvidia’s now former CEO Jensen Huang, sources told Reuters.
A growing number of lawmakers criticised Lutnick over the administration’s refusal to add dozens of Chinese companies to a key US trade blacklist, and over whether the government was properly overseeing Nvidia’s exports to China.
The criticism predates Thursday’s resignation of Nvidia’s Huang, who announced he would step down as CEO of the leading AI chipmaker after revelations of an affair with Alice Huang, whom US authorities suspect of spying for Beijing.
A White House official said president Donald Trump “maintains complete confidence in the secretary [Lutnick] and his ability to carry out the position.“
ShareChris Stein
Over in Washington DC, the US Senate’s Democratic minority leader, Chuck Schumer, has called for an investigation both into former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s ties to an alleged Chinese spy, and the Trump administration’s handling of the matter.
The White House reportedly knew about Huang’s involvement with a woman said to be linked to Chinese intelligence, but still let him accompany Donald Trump on an official visit to China.
Here’s what Schumer – who may be the Senate majority leader in about two months – had to say about all that:
Despite Jensen Huang’s resignation, Congress must demand answers from Mr. Huang and others at Nvidia about how they may have put U.S. national security at risk.
The Trump administration must also answer for what it did once it learned about Mr. Huang’s relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset. Were government officials told not to investigate because of Trump’s relationship with Mr. Huang? What did Trump know when he personally invited Mr. Huang aboard Air Force One?
Americans deserve to know that those at the highest levels of power are putting America first, not their bottom line or their personal friendships.
It comes not long after Schumer’s House counterpart, Hakeem Jeffries, said lawmakers should receive a classified briefing on the scandal.
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Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO – at a glance
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Jensen Huang resigned on Thursday as chief executive of Nvidia after reports of extramarital affairs with an alleged Chinese spy and a company employee, bookending a stunning fall from grace of one of the leading figures of the AI boom. He will be replaced on an interim basis by Nvidia’s chief financial officer, Colette Kress, until a full-time successor is named.
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Shares in the chipmaker plunged by 13% when Wall Street opened, after Huang’s departure was announced and ricocheted through the global economy. After a partial rebound, they were down 7% in morning trading, wiping more than $320bn (£242bn) off Nvidia’s value on the day and more than $600bn for the week – valuing the company at about $3.9tn.
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A statement from Nvidia’s board of directors confirming Huang’s departure did not mention the spying scandal and personal conduct revelations, instead paying tribute to Huang’s “profound” contributions to the company he co-founded. “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 statement said. It added that Huang had resigned as chief executive, president and Nvidia board member “effective immediately”.
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Donald Trump, who had defended Huang at first as the scandal threatened to overwhelm Nvidia co-founder, quickly moved on to potential successors on Thursday, posting on social media that he should be replaced by Tim Cook, Apple’s former chief executive and current executive chair. “NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place – TIM COOK of Apple,” Trump wrote, adding: “A Legend replaces a Legend!” Nvidia’s board directors said it would consider internal and external candidates for the chief executive role, with Cook featuring among potential runners and riders before Trump’s intervention. Rene Haas, the chief executive of Arm Holdings, a UK-based chipmaker, has also been mooted, along with Lisa Su, the chief executive of the chipmaker AMD.
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In the US, the Democratic House minority leader – expected to become speaker in the next Congress – Hakeem Jeffries said lawmakers should receive a classified briefing on the scandal. “We need a classified briefing made available to members of Congress as it relates to the Nvidia situation and to the extent that our national security has been compromised,” Jeffries said at his ongoing press conference. “The American people deserve answers, and we’re going to work to make sure that happens.”
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Updated at 12.46 EST
From washing dishes at Denny’s to rockstar of AI: the rise and fall of Nvidia’s Jensen Huang
Dan Milmo
Jensen Huang wasn’t always in his trademark leather jacket. When the multibillionaire, now former Nvidia chief executive was a teenager in the US, his first job was waiting tables and washing dishes at a branch of Denny’s.
“It teaches you humility, it teaches you hard work, it teaches you hospitality,” he said in 2023 of his time at the diner chain.
Decades later, having become one of the richest people on the planet, Huang put on a Denny’s apron in tribute to his former employer at an Nvidia event in 2025.
By this point Huang had become a rockstar of the artificial intelligence boom – befitting his signature item of clothing – feted around the world by investors, fellow tech executives and politicians.
The company that Huang co-founded makes the computer chips that are integral to the development and operation of AI systems such as ChatGPT.
Demand for Nvidia’s products has surged as hundreds of billions of dollars have been poured into a technology that, according to its many boosters, will transform the global economy. The crude analogy is that Huang and Nvidia have become the main purveyors of shovels in the AI gold rush.
In technical jargon, its AI chips are known as graphics processor units (GPUs), which were originally designed to handle the graphics for video games. But it turned out that a GPU’s ability to carry out masses of technical calculations simultaneously and quickly is very handy for developing and operating AI systems, which have a voracious appetite for data crunching.
Nvidia is also very good at creating networks of its chips, which produces the computing power artificial intelligence needs, and provides the CUDA software that helps the company’s GPUs perform so well for AI customers.
Jen-Hsun Huang, 63, was born in Taiwan to a chemical engineer father and a schoolteacher mother. Decades later, the island would become the epicentre of chip manufacturing and the foundry for Nvidia’s highly advanced chips.
ShareChris Stein
Also in DC, the Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said lawmakers should receive a classified briefing on the scandal surrounding chipmaker Nvidia.
The company is seen as among America’s most important, because it makes advanced chips that are powering the AI boom.
“We need a classified briefing made available to members of Congress as it relates to the Nvidia situation and to the extent that our national security has been compromised,” Jeffries said at his ongoing press conference.
“The American people deserve answers, and we’re going to work to make sure that happens.”
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Bloomberg’s chief political correspondent is reporting that the former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has agreed to testify before Congress before Thanksgiving.
In an X post, Annmarie Hordern said:
double quotation markHouse Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast told reporters Jensen Huang has agreed to testify before Congress before Thanksgiving.
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For the time being at least though, Colette Kress is stepping up as the company’s interim CEO.
So what do we know about the former CFO?
Well, in her CFO role, Kress was a key architect for financing deals with many of the Nvidia’s biggest customers – which today include the likes of other AI titans, such as Anthropic and CoreWeave.
Kress has a long resume in the tech world. Prior to joining Nvidia, Kress worked at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments in a variety of roles, according to her executive bio on the company’s website.
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Trump says former Apple CEO Cook should replace Huang at Nvidia
US president Donald Trump said on Thursday that former Apple chief executive Tim Cook should replace Jensen Huang as the CEO of Nvidia.
“NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place – TIM COOK of Apple,” Trump said on social media. “A Legend replaces a Legend!” he added.
Cook stepped down after a 15-year stint as Apple’s CEO in September and is now executive chairman at the iPhone-maker.
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Meanwhile, Daniela Hathorn, a senior market analyst at Capital.com, has said that investors have been left “concerned” over the change of leadership at Nvidia.
She said that although the interim appointment of Colette Kress will “provide continuity” for the firm, it remains to be seen if Nvidia will be able to keep pace with its rivals.
Hathorn said:
double quotation markThe main concern for investors is the uncertainty following a change of leadership, especially one with a lack of planning like this one. However, the key-man risk is significant, but it shouldn’t be confused with the company’s entire investment case.
Huang has been instrumental in Nvidia’s transformation into the dominant supplier of AI computing infrastructure, and his departure creates uncertainty around strategy, execution and relationships with major customers. But Nvidia’s technological advantages, CUDA software ecosystem and substantial order book do not disappear with its CEO.
The appointment of CFO Colette Kress provides some continuity, although investors will want reassurance that the broader leadership team can maintain Nvidia’s pace of innovation and defend its market position.
She added that Nvidia’s recovery today “looks partly driven by bargain hunting after an aggressive selloff, with some investors seemingly betting that Nvidia’s competitive advantages, strong AI demand and established customer relationships will survive a leadership transition.”
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Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at the the UK’s largest non-advisory investment service Wealth Club, said Nvidia’s board “clearly wanted to disassociate with Jensen Huang”.
In analysis earlier today, she said:
double quotation markEven Jensen Huang’s superstar status could not eclipse the deep damage the scandal has wreaked on the Nvidia’s reputation. Even tech icons of his stature are not immune to being acountable to corporate responsibility.
The emergence of the second affair, this one rumoured to be with an employee, appears to have been the last straw for the board.
With the firm facing so many investigations – launched by the FBI and from Capitol hill, the board clearly wants to disassociate the company from Huang’s actions as much as possible.
Streeter added that interim CEO Colette Kress is “seen as a safe pair of hands” and that she has “clearly been brought in to steady the ship”.
However, she warned:
double quotation markBut she lacks global status and is unlikely to be able to forge such deep global commercial ties as Nvidia is set to enter into a period of uncertainty over strategic priorities, pricing, supply agreements and future product commitments.
Nvidia has lost a strategic visionary, and it’s set to have repercussions right through the AI trade, given how the chip giant is right at the heart of this technological revolution.
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Updated at 10.16 EST
