Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will step down from his role at the AI chip giant following explosive reports of two extramarital affairs, one of which involved an alleged Chinese spy.
The company announced Thursday morning that Huang was resigning immediately and Colette Kress, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Nvidia, will take over as interim CEO.
“Jensen’s contributions to NVIDIA are profound. NVIDIA is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world. The Board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry,” the company wrote in a press release Thursday.
The embattled tech leader admitted Sunday to having an affair with a Chinese businesswoman who U.S. officials concluded was passing information to Beijing, sparking widespread national security concerns given Nvidia’s prominent role in the AI race and Huang’s close relationship with President Trump.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Huang had a separate affair with an Nvidia executive who reports to him.
Huang’s resignation is likely to send ripple effects throughout Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Nvidia, under Huang’s leadership, has become an AI powerhouse, providing the advanced chips underpinning the technology’s development.
The company’s stock tanked as markets opened Thursday morning following the news, dropping more than 10 points.
The revelations about Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, an executive with the data center and cloud computing firm Megaspeed, sparked quick scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle called for investigations into whether Jensen Huang compromised national security and reiterated calls to pass chip export control bills.
U.S. officials concluded Alice Huang was recruited by China to pass along information.
Kress has worked at Nvidia since 2013, leading the tech giant’s finance organization, the company said. She spent more than two decades at other tech giants like Microsoft and Cisco.
“Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position,” Harvey Jones, Nvidia’s newly appointed chair of the board, said in a statement.
The company’s board said it is initiating a search for a permanent replacement, with both internal and external candidates up for consideration.
In an internal message sent to staff, Kress wrote, “I believe deeply in this company and in its future. More than anything, I believe in each of you, in our customers and partners and in the vital role we play every day in the global economy.”
“The Board, Estaff and I recognize that this has been an extraordinarily difficult period and I want you to know how grateful we are for your resilience, professionalism and continued dedication,” Kress wrote in the message, obtained by The Hill. “Thank you.”
“We play a vital role in building the technology that is powering the AI revolution, and we have important work ahead of us. So let’s move forward together, with the same determination and commitment that have always defined this company,” Kress said.
Jensen Huang is one of Trump’s fiercest allies in the technology industry. The president stood behind Huang in the immediate aftermath of the scandal earlier this week, calling the technology executive an “honorable guy.”
“I’m sure, I hope everything’s fine. He’s done such an incredible job and so I would certainly hope he’s a fine person, in my opinion,” he added.
The president on Monday said Huang told him he was not aware the Megaspeed executive was an intelligence operative for Beijing.
The Times first reported last month that Trump was briefed about a year ago that the U.S. intelligence community believed Alice Huang was an operative for China’s government.
The president didn’t do anything with the information at the time, according to the newspaper.
It marks a moment of upheaval for the company. Jensen Huang has led Nvidia since he helped found the chipmaker in the early 1990s. What started as a relatively obscure company making chips for video games became a behemoth in the new AI era.
The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 kicked off an AI boom that put the company’s chips, known as graphics processing units, in high demand. In early 2023, Nvidia was valued at less than $1 trillion, but by late 2025, it was the world’s first $5 trillion company.
As it became increasingly crucial to AI development, Nvidia found itself navigating a complex and often tenuous relationship between the U.S. and China — two superpowers who are competing for dominance on the technology.
Washington has placed increasingly strict export controls on Nvidia’s chips in an effort to curb China’s access and, in turn, development of AI.
Huang has advocated in D.C. for fewer restrictions on chip sales, arguing that allowing the company’s third- or fourth-best chips to reach China can keep the country’s AI industry dependent on American-made infrastructure.
The Nvidia chief saw some key successes. The Trump administration allowed for sales of the company’s H20 and H200 chips to China last year.
Nvidia will report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 financial results next Tuesday, with its earnings call to follow.
Credit: Thehill
