Jensen Huang Resigns From Nvidia After 33 Years

Summary

Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang has resigned on Thursday following revelations of two extramarital affairs

The board weighed Huang's fate over relationships with an alleged Chinese spy and Nvidia vice president Kimberly Powell

With CFO Colette Kress tapped for an interim takeover plan, Nvidia shares dropped over 11 percent in premarket trading

Nvidia co-founder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang has resigned from his leadership role after 33 years on Thursday, according to the Silicon Valley chip giant’s board of directors. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has led the company’s transformation as a graphics-chip maker into a major supplier of processors powering today’s AI needs. Capping a swift fall for one of the central figures in the artificial intelligence boom, the departure follows a multi-hour board meeting on Wednesday convened to weigh Huang’s fate amid revelations of two extramarital affairs.

According to the reports, Huang admitted to an extramarital relationship with a woman whom U.S. intelligence agencies concluded was spying for China. Separately, five anonymous former Nvidia employees revealed that Huang had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care—an executive who reported directly to him, running counter to the company’s code of conduct barring personal relationships that create workplace conflicts of interest.

Although Huang fought to retain his position at the company he founded, an interim plan for Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress to take over Nvidia was already well underway. Unwinding Huang’s unconventional, flat management structure—which bypassed traditional organizational charts in favor of more than 60 direct reports, project-focused meetings across all levels, and thousands of daily emails—could complicate a leadership transition. Meanwhile, Nvidia shares plunged more than 11% in premarket trading Thursday, sending tremors through global markets and extending a decline set to wipe roughly $1 trillion from the company’s market value this month alone.