Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Resigns Amid Espionage Scandal
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned following revelations of extramarital affairs and allegations that one partner was a Chinese spy who helped smuggle AI chips into China.
Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang resigned effective November 12, 2026, following a board investigation into multiple extramarital affairs and potential national security breaches. The scandal centers on Huang's relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at the Singapore-based firm Megaspeed, whom U.S. intelligence identifies as a Chinese spy. Reports allege Alice Huang used the relationship to influence U.S. AI policy and facilitate the illegal shipment of approximately $7.5 billion in restricted Nvidia chips to China.
Additional reports revealed Huang had a second affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare. In response to the leadership vacuum, the board appointed CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO and named Harvey C. Jones as the company's first-ever board chair. The news triggered a massive market sell-off, erasing hundreds of billions of dollars in market value and pushing Nvidia's valuation below $4 trillion.
President Donald Trump defended Huang as an "honorable guy," though he later admitted to receiving intelligence briefings about Alice Huang's status as an operative. Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers and the Department of Justice launched probes into whether the Trump administration, specifically Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, ignored security warnings to protect Nvidia's interests. Huang has agreed to testify before Congress in December regarding the security breaches and the company's export protocols. The Government of China has dismissed the espionage allegations as "unsubstantiated" smears intended to justify technological blockades.
