Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns amid scandal over extramarital affairs

Former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Nvidia VP Kimberly Powell.

Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO of chipmaking giant Nvidia, stepped down Thursday morning after news of a second affair with a 48-year-old underling broke late Wednesday. According to reports, the company's board was moving to oust Huang. He's been replaced on an interim basis by the CFO.

The New York Times reported that Huang was also involved in a romantic affair with Kimberly Powell, 48, who is the company's longtime VP of its health care division and is also married. Huang, 63, co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and over the last 30 years grew it into the world's foremost chipmaker and positioned it at the center of the A.I. boom, which made it one of the world's most valuable companies. The ensuing scandal has sent the company's stock price plummeting.

Huang was unable to weather the storm, which was already a category five hurrican even before a second affair, with a subordinate, emerged. News of the reported affair with Powell came in the wake of revelations that Huang was involved in another extramarital affair with a woman named Alice Huang, an alleged spy for China. That revelation sent shockwaves through the tech industry as well as Washington, D.C., due to the Trump administration's embrace of tech leaders and Huang himself. 

Despite the intense controversy swirling around Huang, top figures in the tech industry, including Elon Musk, expressed support for Huang and urged the Nvidia board to keep him on as CEO. 

Jason Calcanis, one of the hosts of the All In podcast and a friend of Musk's and Huang's expressed support for Huang ahead of his resignation, suggesting China was manipulating Huang's downfall.

“Benching him is what the Chinese want. The Chinese do not want him out there leading this company. That's why they targeted him," Calcanis said. "We have to think strategically, not vindictively.” Tech titan Palmer Lucky echoed that sentiment, saying, "China wants Jensen out, so I want him in."

Nvidia's board named Colette Kress, the company's longtime CFO, its interim CEO on Thursday morning. Cress has been at Nvidia for 13 years, and according to CNBC, enjoys broad respect from within the company. 

Conjecture on who might permanently succeed Huang at Nvidia started almost immediately after news of the resignation broke, led by President Donald Trump who endorsed former Apple CEO Tim Cook for the job.

"NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place - TIM COOK of Apple. A Legend replaces a Legend!" Trump wrote Thursday in a post on Truth Social.

Huang has been married to Lori Huang, who generally keeps a low profile, for more than 40 years, and admitted in a memo to Nvidia staffers earlier this week that he'd been unfaithful in his marriage.

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