Nvidia Corp.’s board of directors today announced the resignation of Jensen Huang, now former chief executive and president, amid a scandal, naming Colette Kress, current executive vice president and chief financial officer, as interim CEO.

The news arrives following numerous industry reports that the board intended to replace Huang as CEO after revelations of a second extramarital relationship with an executive at Nvidia, coming mere days after he admitted to an affair with a suspected Chinese spy.

News initially broke over the weekend that Huang had an affair with Alice Huang, no relation, an executive at Singapore-based company Megaspeed International Pte. Ltd. and an alleged Chinese spy. The Information reported on Tuesday that Alice Huang facilitated $7.5 billion in chip sales to China. According to another report, Jensen Huang also had a relationship with Nvidia executive Kimberly Powell, who serves as vice president of healthcare.

The New York Times reported last month that United Sates authorities concluded Alice Huang acted as a Chinese intelligence asset. Upon revelations of the affair, the AP reported that U.S. President Trump announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into the allegations, while adding, “I think that he’ll be in good shape.”

Late Wednesday, the Nvidia board met to decide whether to oust Huang and discussed a potential replacement as CEO. Huang has no obvious successor and owns around 3.6% of Nvidia’s stock. Reportedly, the board sought counsel from an outside firm to find someone to fill the role.

With the announcement, Nvidia stock was falling more than 6% in early trading. Yahoo Finance calculated that Nvidia has lost more than $600 billion in market value since the previous Thursday, likely with more shocks to come.

“Nvidia’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years,” said Kress. “We will continue advancing the work that has made Nvidia a leader in accelerated computing and AI, and execute on the opportunities ahead.”

Kress has served as executive vice president and CFO since joining in September 2013. Her accolades include leading the company’s finance organization and working to build the company’s dominance in the AI chip industry. Before joining Nvidia, she spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at leading technology companies, including Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

Huang is best known for co-founding Nvidia in 1993 and has served as its CEO since. His departure will likely send further ripples through the AI silicon and software industry. He has been deeply involved in Nvidia’s product strategy and built longstanding customer relationships, helming the company as it became the colossal behemoth it is today.

Nvidia commands roughly 80% of the data-center AI chip market, although industry estimates vary by methodology. Epoch Artificial Intelligence Inc. puts its share of AI computing power shipped at 63% in the second quarter of 2026. Other market carve-outs include custom chips built by cloud companies within the broader supply, including Google LLC’s tensor processing units at 25%, Amazon Inc.’s custom silicon at 5% and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s AI hardware accelerators at 4%.

Nvidia is expected to report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 finances on Nov. 17.

Photo: Nvidia