Three affairs, a spy scandal and a $4 trillion question: how Jensen Huang's fall leaves Nvidia

In a little over two weeks, Jensen Huang has gone from the face of the AI boom to a former chief executive, undone by allegations of three extramarital relationships, one of them with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset. His company, which supplies most of the chips the AI industry runs on, now has an interim chief, a new board chair and a long list of questions. Here is what is known.

What is the third affair?

Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter, that Huang also had an intimate relationship with a second company employee. The claim surfaced hours after his resignation was announced. The employee’s name and designation have not been made public, Nvidia has not commented, and attempts to reach the person were unsuccessful.

It is the third relationship attributed to him and the second inside Nvidia. The first involved Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed who is alleged to have worked for Chinese intelligence. The second involved Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reported directly to Huang, according to The New York Times. The third has not been confirmed by Huang or the company.

How did it unravel?

On Sunday, Huang admitted he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologised to his family and to Nvidia employees. The board initially backed him and launched an independent investigation into reports he had been targeted by Chinese intelligence. That support collapsed within days. On Wednesday, Reuters reported the board was meeting to consider removing him after the allegations about Powell.

What were his last moments at Nvidia?

The board deliberated into Wednesday night, and Nvidia announced on Thursday that Huang had resigned, effective immediately, as president, chief executive and board member. That ended a 33-year run as chief executive. Nvidia gave no reason, and its statement thanked him for “immeasurable contributions.” He will forfeit $108 million in unvested stock, the Hindustan Times reported, and Trump had reportedly urged him to fight for his job before he quit.

No outlet has published an hour-by-hour account of his final hours inside the company.

Is national security at stake?

That is the most serious question. Huang spent years campaigning against restrictions on chip sales to China. In December 2025, Trump approved exports of Nvidia’s H200 chips there, subject to inspections, shipment limits, military-use restrictions and a 25 per cent tariff, and Chinese firms reportedly ordered more than two million of them. There is no established evidence that Huang knowingly helped Beijing or that company secrets were compromised, and Nvidia’s board says it has no reason to believe national security was compromised. The FBI, Congress and Nvidia itself are investigating, and Huang has agreed to testify before Congress.

Who runs Nvidia now?

Colette Kress, chief financial officer since September 2013, is interim CEO. Over her tenure, annual revenue rose from $4.13 billion in fiscal 2014 to $215.9 billion in fiscal 2026. She previously held senior finance roles at Texas Instruments, Microsoft and Cisco.

Harvey Jones, a director since 1993, is the board’s first-ever chair. The board is considering internal and external candidates for the permanent job. Names under discussion include Kress, Nvidia’s Ian Buck, Arm’s Rene Haas, AMD’s Lisa Su and Micron’s Sanjay Mehrotra. Trump has floated former Apple chief Tim Cook, though there is no sign he is interested.

Where does Nvidia stand?

Commercially, it is dominant. The company controls an estimated 90 per cent of the market for advanced AI chips. It is also an investor in the AI industry it supplies, having agreed to acquire Hugging Face and preparing to invest about $10 billion in AI developer Anthropic.

Its stock has taken a beating. The market value dipped below $4 trillion for the first time since July 2025, and the shares trade at their lowest multiple of expected earnings in 14 years. Shares fell more than 14 per cent at one point on Thursday before recovering some ground. The company faces a shareholder class-action suit, and the leadership vacuum comes as it needs steady hands in Washington. Analysts note Huang’s close relationship with Trump was central to its China strategy, and few other allies remain.

The next test is Tuesday, November 17, when Nvidia reports third-quarter results, the first under Kress. For now, analysts see a company with a commanding product position and a scandal-damaged leadership. Which of the two defines the next year depends on who the board picks and what investigators find.