Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Resigns Amid Espionage Scandal
Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia CEO following revelations of affairs with a suspected Chinese spy and a subordinate, triggering federal probes and a massive market sell-off.
Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang resigned effective November 12, 2026, following a series of personal and national security scandals. Huang admitted to an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at the Singapore-based firm Megaspeed whom U.S. intelligence identifies as a Chinese operative. Reports also revealed a second affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare. The board of directors launched an independent investigation led by former acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to determine if company secrets or national security were compromised.
U.S. authorities allege Alice Huang used her relationship with Jensen Huang to facilitate the illegal diversion of approximately $7.5 billion in restricted AI chips to China. The scandal has sparked a political crisis for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is accused of stalling export controls and refusing to blacklist Megaspeed despite presidential orders. While President Donald Trump defended Huang as an "honorable man" and later suggested Apple's Tim Cook as a successor, Senator Chuck Schumer and other lawmakers have called the situation a "dereliction of duty" and demanded congressional testimony.
Nvidia appointed CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO and named Harvey C. Jones as the company's first board chair. The leadership vacuum and security concerns triggered a massive market sell-off, erasing over $1 trillion in market value and causing Nvidia to lose its status as the world's most valuable company. The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI are currently conducting multiple probes into chip smuggling and foreign intelligence targeting.
