Nvidia’s Board Moves Toward Ousting Jensen Huang as a Second Alleged Affair Surfaces
Nvidia’s board is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang after two extramarital affairs, including one with a woman U.S. intelligence suspects of spying for China, according to a new report.
The board could meet as soon as Wednesday to decide his future, Reuters reported, citing the Wall Street Journal. Nvidia shares slid about 8% in after-hours trading on the news.
The report landed minutes after the New York Times said Huang had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reports to him, CNBC reported. Both are married to other people.
The two were allegedly captured together on camera at a San Jose hotel during Nvidia’s developer conference in March, two unnamed sources told the Times, The Verge reported. The Times said it had not seen the video.
Reached by phone and asked about Powell, Huang said, “I don’t think you should be talking to me directly,” and hung up, Reuters reported. Nvidia and Powell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The scandal began with Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, no relation, a Megaspeed executive whom U.S. officials have concluded was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security. Megaspeed, a Singapore-based firm, has been investigated for allegedly smuggling Nvidia chips into China.
Huang acknowledged an affair in a Sunday memo to staff. “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did,” he wrote, according to CNBC. “I am deeply sorry.”
The board then opened an independent investigation into whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation, hiring the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz. At the time, directors expressed confidence in him.
The affair has also put the White House on the spot. Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed President Donald Trump on the intelligence aboard Air Force One in May, before Huang joined the China trip in Alaska, CNN reported, citing a source.
Trump has said he learned of the matter only recently. “I really believe him,” Trump said of Huang on Monday. A White House official told CNN the sources “have no idea what they’re talking about.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was also sent the classified memo before the trip, Axios reported, raising questions about how the department weighed the warning as it cleared Nvidia chip sales to China-affiliated buyers.
Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said lawmakers are “aggressively pursuing more information” on whether chip export decisions were “improperly influenced or compromised.” Democrats have vowed investigations once they take control in January.
Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has led it for 33 years. The company has no obvious successor or succession plan, TechCrunch reported, and Huang has said he has about 60 direct reports.
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