Jensen Huang has resigned as CEO of Nvidia, the $4.2 trillion chipmaker, following reports of extramarital affairs with a suspected Chinese spy and a company executive. The resignation was effective immediately, announced by Nvidia's board on Thursday.
Huang, 63, co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and owned about 3.6 percent of its stock. He was a close ally of President Donald Trump and had pushed to ease U.S. restrictions on chip exports to China. The scandal involves Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, Nvidia's primary business partner in Southeast Asia. U.S. intelligence suspects Alice Huang of spying for China. Megaspeed, founded in 2023, has been investigated over whether it helped Chinese companies access Nvidia's $4.8 billion stock of powerful chips.
Nvidia's board met Wednesday night to discuss ousting Huang. The company named CFO and Executive Vice President Colette Kress as interim CEO and appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever board chair. Nvidia's market value fell below $4 trillion for the first time since July 2025, capping a volatile week. The company faces a shareholder class-action lawsuit and investigations by the FBI, Congress, and Nvidia itself.
President Trump called the saga a "horrible thing" and "so sad to see," but also called Huang "a legend." Huang has agreed to testify before Congress, according to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast. Senate and House Democrats are launching a probe into the Trump administration's plans to approve AI chip sales to Chinese companies.
Nvidia is set to report quarterly earnings on Tuesday. The resignation is expected to impact AI and chip markets worldwide.