Nvidia moves toward replacing Jensen Huang as CEO following revelation of a new extramarital affair

Nvidia’s board of directors met on Wednesday to discuss the dismissal the company’s CEO, Jensen Huang, after the revelation that he had two extramarital affairs, one of them with an alleged Chinese spy, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.The scandal surrounding the Nvidia CEO threatens to become even more complicated. The founder of the world’s largest chipmaker is under investigation over his relationship with businesswoman Alice Huang — also known as Huang Le — who is suspected of spying for the Chinese government. A further revelation from The New York Times alleges that Huang had another romantic relationship with a female executive at his company who reported directly to him.The board of directors now seems to be on the verge of moving to replace the chief executive and is debating Huang’s future. Following its meeting Wednesday, the outcome of the deliberations still remains unknown. Meanwhile, the company has hired a consulting firm to search for candidates who could replace Huang as CEO.Huang’s deep knowledge of the company and the market has led the board to consider the possibility of retaining him as chairman, with limited authority, while promoting Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as the new interim CEO, according to Bloomberg. Kress is well-known in the market because she often represents the company at conferences with investors and analysts. Prediction platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi rank Ian Buck, Nvidia’s vice president of hyperscale and high-performance computing, as the frontrunner to succeed Huang.Nvidia’s stock fell about 8% in after-hours trading. The company has lost more than a third of its value in the last month, shedding $1.8 trillion in market capitalization. Other companies in the AI industry, such as Intel, Super Micro Computer, and CoreWeave, are also suffering on the stock market due to the fallout from Nvidia.Huang, 63, who has been married to Lori Huang for more than 40 years, is one of the world’s richest men thanks to his stake in Nvidia — the company around which the entire artificial intelligence (AI) industry revolves, thanks to the state-of-the-art chips it manufactures.His departure would send shockwaves through Wall Street. Until a few days ago, Nvidia was the world’s largest company. It was praised and admired for its ability to grow in a high-value-added, fiercely competitive sector. It was also a symbol of U.S. dominance in the AI sector over China.Earlier this year, Huang made some remarks that may have been prophetic. “The secret to staying CEO for so long is, first, not getting fired, and second, not getting bored,” he said during an event in Las Vegas last January. “I don’t know which of the two comes first. How long [will I remain CEO]? As long as I deserve to,” he insisted.Huang’s dismissal would mark the end of an era in which he drove the global boom in this new technology, becoming a key figure in the industry and wielding significant influence in geopolitics. Born in Taiwan and raised in Oregon, he has played an important role as a liaison between Asia and Washington. His potential departure highlights serious governance shortcomings at Nvidia, leaving one of the world’s three largest companies without a clear leader.It also highlights the risks to U.S. national security posed by a company of this size and importance, which controls 90% of the global chip market. U.S. intelligence agencies for months investigated Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, a businesswoman who allegedly provided information to authorities in Beijing. The FBI is also investigating the matter, as announced this week by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has a close relationship with the Nvidia CEO.But the latest revelations about Huang further cloud the matter. He had another relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health, according to the NYT, which cites a video showing the two in an affectionate embrace. Huang and Powell were at a hotel in San Jose, California, after attending a developers’ conference last March.Nvidia prohibits its employees from having personal relationships with one another to avoid situations that could lead to conflicts of interest. The company says it is investigating the allegations of misconduct.Huang has been married to Lori Huang since 1985. The two met while they were students at Oregon State University and have been together ever since. The couple has two children, who work at the company. Powell is also married.The scandal broke just 10 days ago when The New York Times reported that Huang was the target of a plot to smuggle state-of-the-art chips into China through a businesswoman with whom he was having an extramarital affair. From there, events unfolded rapidly: the company announced an investigation after he admitted to the infidelity, but claimed he was unaware that his mistress was an alleged Chinese spy.If it comes to pass, Huang’s dismissal will mark the downfall of a tech giant that has come to symbolize the rise of artificial intelligence.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition