Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned Thursday after his extramarital affair raised national security concerns, in a spectacular downfall for the longtime head of the chipmaker, a vital player in the artificial intelligence boom.
The company named Colette Kress as interim chief executive. She is the current executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Huang faced growing calls to resign after his affair with a Chinese businesswoman who reportedly was also acting as a spy for Beijing. His troubles compounded late Wednesday after media reports said Huang had another extramarital affair with an Nvidia employee who reported to him.
Kress took over the role as Nvidia’s chief financial officer in 2013, overseeing the company’s global finance operations. Before that, she worked for three years at Cisco and spent 13 years at Microsoft.
In a statement Thursday, Kress said that Nvidia’s “strength has always come from its people” and that she was “committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.”
The board of directors said Thursday it had also named its first-ever chairman, Harvey C. Jones, an entrepreneur and venture investor.
Shares of Nvidia tumbled 14 per cent at the opening bell Thursday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 1.5 per cent.
Nvidia’s board had gathered to discuss Huang’s future after revelations about his affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed International suspected of being a Chinese government agent. The two are not related.
In its first statement since the scandal broke, Megaspeed said Thursday that it takes its obligation to comply with US export control laws “extremely seriously.” The company prominently touts a partnership with Nvidia on its website. The two are not related.
Details about Huang’s affair with the former Megaspeed executive are unclear.
“Megaspeed is committed to working constructively and transparently with the US government,” said the statement signed by its chairman and CEO, Tan Yong Pong, who also goes by James Tan.
Nvidia has said it had “no reason to believe” that either national security or its secrets were compromised, but that its inquiry would examine all available information.
Last month, the Times reported that US intelligence agencies discovered that Huang had developed a close relationship with Alice Huang – and determined that she was feeding information directly to Beijing. On Sunday, US President Donald Trump announced that the FBI was investigating.
Megaspeed faced allegations last year that it was illicitly shipping advanced Nvidia computer chips into China, but in December said there was “no evidence” of such exports.
Singaporean authorities said Thursday that they questioned Alice Huang and confiscated her passport last year as part of an investigation into Megaspeed. They concluded last year that there wasn’t enough evidence that she had committed a crime but barred her from returning to the country.
China has denied that it engaged in an attempt to ensnare Huang, who heads one of the world’s most valuable companies. Nvidia has become a leader in making chips that power AI and Huang has lobbied Washington to loosen limits on sales of Nvidia chips to China. In January, he won Trump’s approval to sell its H200 chips to China.
Megaspeed said Thursday that it has cooperated with the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which handles enforcement of national security restrictions on technology exports, and was ready to “cooperate fully with any other relevant US government authority.”
It said it has hired a US law firm to conduct a “comprehensive census” of its computer chips and to verify its export controls.
“Megaspeed welcomes appropriate government scrutiny and is committed to demonstrating through concrete actions that it operates responsibly, transparently, and in accordance with applicable US laws,” it said.
Apart from questions over national security, Megaspeed’s finances also have drawn attention. Its total assets soared roughly 90-fold from late 2023 to 2024, to almost USD 3 billion, according to Singapore corporate records.
Revenue surged to over USD 294 million in 2024 from none in 2023. (AP)
