NVIDIA Corp.’s board of directors is preparing to remove longtime CEO Jensen Huang following explosive reports detailing two separate extramarital affairs, including one with a subordinate executive and another with a woman suspected by U.S. intelligence officials of working as a Chinese spy.
The board is scheduled to convene as early as Wednesday to decide the fate of the company’s co-founder, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The news triggered an immediate sell-off in after-hours trading, sending NVIDIA shares plunging between 8% and 9% and rippling across the broader artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor sectors.
The governance crisis escalated rapidly on Wednesday after The New York Times reported that Huang engaged in a romantic relationship with Kimberly Powell, NVIDIA’s vice president of healthcare, who reports directly to him.
Citing five unnamed company sources, the Times reported that Huang and Powell were captured on camera displaying affection at a hotel in San Jose, Calif., in March. Powell oversees NVIDIA’s global healthcare division, managing hardware and software platforms for medical imaging, drug discovery, and AI-driven life sciences.
The disclosure regarding Powell arrived just days after Huang acknowledged a separate extramarital affair in a Sunday memo to employees, pledging his cooperation with an ongoing board investigation.
While Huang did not identify the individual in his memo, The New York Times and The Financial Times reported that the CEO was romantically involved with Alice Huang, a Chinese national and executive at Singapore-based cloud computing firm Megaspeed, an NVIDIA customer.
U.S. intelligence officials reportedly believe Alice Huang, who is not related to the CEO, was recruited to gather intelligence for China’s Ministry of State Security. Prior to his Sunday admission, Jensen Huang had characterized his interactions with her to Bloomberg as routine business dealings. Last week, federal lawmakers formally requested Huang’s testimony regarding the relationship, citing “significant national security concerns.”
In response to the national security probe, NVIDIA’s board retained the prominent Wall Street law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, tapping former U.S. attorney Joon H. Kim to lead the internal investigation. Huang had also reportedly enlisted the crisis public relations firm Heller as early as last year.
Neither NVIDIA, Powell, nor Heller immediately responded to requests for comment on Wednesday.
The prospect of Huang’s sudden departure has rattled Wall Street, dragging down stocks closely tied to NVIDIA’s supply chain and ecosystem in extended trading. Shares of server maker Supermicro fell nearly 5%, cloud provider CoreWeave dropped over 4%, memory supplier Micron declined nearly 3%, and chip manufacturer TSMC slipped more than 2%.
Market analysts warned that ousting Huang — who has become synonymous with NVIDIA’s meteoric rise to the pinnacle of the global AI boom — presents severe operational challenges, particularly because the company has never disclosed a formal succession plan.
“Mr. Huang being removed immediately could be challenging for NVIDIA since it does not have a succession plan in place,” said Gil Luria, managing director at D.A. Davidson & Co. However, Luria noted that investors expect the board to uphold its fiduciary duty and act swiftly if company policies or laws were violated.
Bruce Zaro, managing director at Granite Wealth Management, echoed concerns about filling the leadership void at the 42,000-employee tech giant, questioning whether another executive could match Huang’s stature as the premier ambassador for the data center industry.
While the board stated on Sunday that Huang remained committed to leading the company without interruption, analysts and former employees have pointed to Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress and Vice President Ian Buck as potential internal successors. Huang’s two adult children, Madison and Spencer, are also employed at the company.
