Jensen Huang officially resigned as Nvidia CEO on Thursday morning, a seismic event in the tech industry.
Nvidia is one of the most valuable companies in the world, with a nearly $4 trillion valuation, and Huang was the company’s original CEO and co-founder. The company’s board of directors shared a CEO transition plan on its website, saying Huang has also resigned as president and as a member of the board, effective immediately.
The company’s CFO, Colette Kress, will serve as interim CEO, while also maintaining her CFO responsibilities. The board has begun searching for a new CEO, looking both inside and outside the company.
The tech industry has been closely watching Nvidia and its stock ever since news first broke by the New York Times that Huang had not one, but two affairs, including one with an accused Chinese spy. Nvidia chips provide much of the compute that powers the fast-growing AI industry, and so Huang’s alleged entanglement with a possible Chinese spy wasn’t just a typical executive PR scandal, but a national security issue.
The story is still developing, so keep checking back at Mashable for the latest Nvidia news and live updates.
The Jensen Huang affair: What happened
Last Friday, New York Times and Financial Times reported dropped a bomb on the tech industry. The publications reported that Huang had an affair with a woman the U.S. intelligence community believed to be a Chinese spy. China disputed these accusations, of course, but the Times reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally wrote a memo alerting President Donald Trump to the situation in the spring.
On Nov. 8, Huang posted a personal message to the Nvidia website, admitting to and apologizing for the affair.
“I owe my family and all of you an apology,” Huang wrote. “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”
It was unclear whether Huang would be able to hold on to his position as CEO, and the Nvidia board of directors announced it had opened an investigation into the incident.
Huang’s second affair
But on Wednesday, news of a second affair may have sealed Huang’s fate. The New York Times reported that Huang had another extramarital affair with another Nvidia executive who reported to him. The Times identified that executive as Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare.
This is a developing story. The latest Nvidia news will be posted live on this page…
