Nvidia Chief Jensen Huang Resigns Amid Controversies

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stepped down from his position and left the company board on Thursday, following reports regarding his personal relationships and supply chain scrutiny. The chipmaker's shares traded down 5% after dropping as much as 14% to 20% earlier in the day. The company has a market cap hovering just under $4 trillion, a benchmark it has closed above since July 2025.

Leadership Changes

Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO until a new leader takes charge, according to a Thursday statement from Nvidia. Harvey C. Jones, the former CEO of Synopsys, will become the first-ever chair of the board. Before his resignation, US lawmakers had called for Huang to step down, while Wall Street analysts warned that his departure could lead the stock to fall 20% due to his critical role in the company's success.

Personal Scandals

On Sunday, Huang admitted to an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, an executive at cloud company Megaspeed. US intelligence officials suspect her of being a spy for China. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Huang also had another relationship with Kimberly Powell, the vice president of health care at Nvidia who reported directly to him. Stacy Rasgon, a senior analyst at Bernstein, told CNBC that the relationship with a direct report made it very tough for the board to keep him in his position. Bernstein also slashed its price target on Nvidia stock by half from $400 to $200.

Earlier Reports

A short-seller report published six months prior by Culper Research, titled The China Problem, had already questioned Jensen Huang's association with Alice Huang and examined Megaspeed's role in moving Nvidia-powered servers through Southeast Asia. The report highlighted photographs of the two together in Taiwan in 2024 and 2025. It also detailed that Malaysia-based Speedmatrix, a Megaspeed subsidiary, imported $4.6 billion worth of products between December 2024 and January 2026, including $4 billion from Aivres Systems. The report further alleged that this supply chain could have helped Nvidia-powered computing capacity reach Chinese customers through intermediaries.

Context

Corporate governance rules in major technology firms strictly prohibit relationships between executives and direct reports due to conflicts of interest. Leadership stability is a major factor for investors assessing trillion-dollar technology corporations during periods of rapid industry growth. Supply chain transparency remains a critical focus for regulators monitoring high-end hardware exports to various global markets.