Nvidia Board Considers Ousting CEO Jensen Huang Amid Spy Scandal
Nvidia's board is weighing the removal of CEO Jensen Huang following admissions of affairs with a suspected Chinese spy and a company subordinate.
The board of directors of Nvidia Inc. is meeting to decide whether to remove CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang following revelations of two extramarital affairs. One relationship was with Alice Huang, an executive at the Singapore-based firm Megaspeed, whom U.S. intelligence identifies as an operative for China's Ministry of State Security. A second relationship involved Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare, who reports directly to Huang.
U.S. authorities suspect Alice Huang used her relationship with the CEO to facilitate the smuggling of at least $7.5 billion in restricted AI chips to China via Megaspeed and its subsidiary, Speedmatrix. The scandal has triggered multiple Department of Justice investigations and intense congressional scrutiny. Lawmakers, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons, have demanded the preservation of all export records and questioned if national security was compromised to benefit Nvidia's lobbying efforts.
President Donald Trump has defended Huang, calling him an honorable guy, though Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer accused the president of a dereliction of duty, claiming he was briefed on the suspected spy over a year ago. The leadership crisis erased hundreds of billions in market value, with shares plunging over 8% in after-hours trading. The board has retained the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to lead an independent probe and is considering internal replacements such as CFO Colette Kress or external candidates like Eric Schmidt.
The turmoil coincides with strained U.S.-China relations, including delays in critical rare-earth exports from Beijing and an upcoming summit between President Trump and President Xi Jinping in Shenzhen.
