Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO, Kress steps in amid new affair claim

Nvidia’s board followed through on the threat described in an earlier report: on November 11 the company confirmed in an SEC filing that it had accepted Jensen Huang’s resignation, TechCrunch reports. Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer, becomes interim chief executive while keeping her CFO role, according to TechCrunch. Harvey C. Jones, a Nvidia board member since 1993 and former chief executive of Synopsys, was named the company’s first-ever board chair, TechCrunch reports.

Huang, who co-founded Nvidia 33 years ago and had been its only CEO, confirmed on November 12 that he will testify before Congress, with the closed-door session expected before Thanksgiving on November 26, TechCrunch reports. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast told reporters that Huang “has some very serious questions to answer” over export controls.

The resignation followed two reports published close together on November 11. The New York Times, citing five former Nvidia employees, reported that Huang had an affair with Kimberly Powell, the company’s vice president of healthcare and a direct report, and that the two were filmed “being affectionate” at a hotel during a conference this year, according to TechCrunch’s account. Nvidia, Huang and Powell have not confirmed it; Huang told a Times reporter, “I don’t think you should be talking to me directly,” before hanging up, TechCrunch reports. On November 12, after Huang had left the CEO role, Reuters reported a third affair, with another unnamed Nvidia employee, per TechCrunch.

The scandal traces back to Huang’s reported relationship with Alice Huang, no relation, a Megaspeed executive whom US officials believe is a Chinese intelligence asset, TechCrunch reports. The Information has reported that Alice Huang’s family built a network of companies, including Shanghai Century Litong, which became an Nvidia-preferred cloud partner and helped buy $7.5 billion in chips, including banned models, according to TechCrunch’s summary of that reporting.

The Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto reported that Megaspeed’s Singapore office showed “no signs of activity” when visited by the Straits Times, that its sole director has disappeared, and that Alice Huang has surfaced in Beijing after the Financial Times reported she was barred from Singapore for giving police “inaccurate information.” Lopatto also linked the case to Super Micro, where an executive was indicted over an alleged $2.5 billion scheme to route chips to Alibaba, and to another approved Nvidia buyer, New Matrix, which the New York Times says has ties to blacklisted firms.

What this means

Nvidia now has a CFO running the company and a board chair for the first time in its 33-year history, but no named permanent successor, and Huang still must answer Congress before Thanksgiving over export-control enforcement, not just his conduct. The Verge’s Lopatto argues the later affairs may be a pretext for the board’s action, with the bigger exposure being how much Nvidia hardware allegedly reached China through Megaspeed and similar intermediaries despite Huang’s public insistence there was “no evidence of any AI chip diversion.” Neither report says what tipped the board from weighing Huang’s removal to accepting his resignation within roughly a day, or whether his testimony will become public.

Elizabeth Warren is set to gain subpoena power in January as incoming chair of the Senate Banking Committee, the Verge reports, giving Congress another route to pursue the chip-smuggling allegations once Huang’s closed-door session concludes.