Key facts
- Nvidia named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress interim CEO on Thursday and is seeking a permanent replacement for Huang.
- Nvidia said it has no reason to believe national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, and its independent inquiry continues.
- Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons and other Democrats demanded Huang brief Congress on his alleged affair.
- Alice Huang, no relation, worked as an executive at Singaporean firm Megaspeed and has been suspected of being a Chinese intelligence asset, according to the New York Times.
- China rejected the allegations as a smear, and Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department had not drawn conclusions.
- Nvidia's stock fell 31% and its five-day drop was the largest since its listing 27 years ago, the report said.
Jensen Huang abruptly quit as chief executive of Nvidia after revelations of alleged extramarital affairs, the BBC reported on November 12, 2026. Nvidia's interim CEO, Colette Kress, called an emergency meeting of her executive team to discuss the company's future. Nvidia has lost $550 billion in stock market value in five days as the scandal dominated headlines.
Huang, who has been Nvidia's public face since 1993, admitted on Sunday to having been unfaithful to his wife after reports he had an extramarital affair with a suspected Chinese spy, Alice Huang. On Wednesday, he was reported to have had a second relationship, this time with an Nvidia executive. Alice Huang, no relation, worked as an executive at the Singaporean firm Megaspeed and has been suspected of being an intelligence asset for China, according to the New York Times. China has rejected those allegations as a smear.
US Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Thursday the Department of Justice had not yet drawn any conclusions about whether Alice Huang was engaged in espionage for Beijing. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons, along with other Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, publicly demanded that Huang brief Congress on his alleged affair. One Senate staff member told the BBC that if Huang refuses to appear voluntarily before any committee that calls him, he could be subpoenaed.
Representatives of Nvidia have repeatedly declined to comment since Wednesday. A personal representative of Huang also declined to comment on Thursday. According to US media, Huang's alleged second affair was with a long-time Nvidia executive, Kimberly Powell, who reported directly to him within the company. Sources told the BBC that Nvidia employees had noticed the pair were unusually close.
Huang had been widely expected to weather the scandal after the first affair became public, even as Nvidia announced it had launched an investigation into whether its CEO had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. One current Nvidia staff member told the BBC that the initial reports of his infidelity were more or less brushed off by rank-and-file workers inside the company. It was not until Huang's alleged affair with the Nvidia executive became public that workers started to feel this is crazy, the person said. Another Nvidia employee said they had been told not to speak with the press or otherwise comment on the situation in public.
Nvidia has said it has no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, but said its independent inquiry would look at all available information. The company's rise had been led by Jensen Huang, who became a major booster of the AI industry, which relies on Nvidia for the powerful computer chips it manufactures. Nvidia is now hunting a permanent replacement for Huang. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress was named on Thursday as interim CEO.
Nvidia's stock fall this week is the most significant five-day drop the company has seen since going public 27 years ago. The company's market value rose by more than 470% in the past five years, with its stock peaking just a few weeks ago. It is now down by 31% against a backdrop of wider uncertainty in the tech sector. Nvidia's value makes up about 7% of the S&P 500 index, which is offered as a popular index fund in 401ks, retirement savings accounts whose balances rise and fall with the stock market.