Nvidia's board reportedly met on Wednesday to consider removing co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang following reports of two extramarital relationships
Huang resigned as CEO and board member on Thursday, with CFO Colette Kress appointed interim chief executive and Harvey C Jones named the company's first board chairman
Nvidia has not disclosed whether directors formally voted on Huang's removal, while its earlier investigation found no reason to believe company secrets or US national security had been compromised
Jensen Huang's resignation as Nvidia's president and chief executive on Thursday came after the company's board reportedly met to consider removing him, marking a dramatic turn in a leadership crisis that had escalated over four days.
While Nvidia confirmed his immediate departure and the appointment of chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim CEO, the company has not disclosed what transpired during the crucial board meeting on Wednesday or whether directors formally voted on his removal.
Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the matter, that the board met late on Wednesday to decide whether to oust Huang. The meeting followed reports of two extramarital relationships involving the 63-year-old co-founder, one with a businesswoman suspected by US authorities of links to Chinese intelligence and another with a senior Nvidia executive.
The company's Thursday announcement confirmed that Huang had resigned as president, CEO and a member of the board with immediate effect. Kress will hold the top executive position while continuing as CFO, as Nvidia searches for a permanent successor from internal and external candidates. Harvey C Jones, a longtime board member, was appointed the company's first-ever chairman.
Neither the announcement nor the board's earlier statements provided a detailed explanation for Huang's departure. There are no publicly available minutes or voting records establishing whether the Wednesday meeting resulted in a removal decision or whether Huang resigned before one could be taken.
From Board Confidence To A Leadership Crisis
The sequence began with an apparently unequivocal show of support. On Sunday, Nvidia's board announced an independent investigation after reports that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence operation. It said independent directors would oversee the inquiry with outside legal assistance and stated that it had "no reason to believe" either national security or Nvidia's confidential information had been compromised.
The board also expressly backed Huang and his leadership team. Huang, in turn, said he would cooperate with the investigation.
That same day, he sent a message to employees acknowledging that he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologising to his family and colleagues. "I was unfaithful to my wife," he wrote, accepting responsibility for his actions. He did not identify the person involved, and the admission did not establish the separate allegations about his relationships or any connection to an intelligence operation.
Two days later, the independent directors appointed former acting US Attorney Joon H Kim and his law firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, to conduct a thorough investigation. The appointment brought in external legal counsel as the scrutiny surrounding the founder intensified. By Wednesday, the board was considering removing him.
What Could The Board Have Done?
Nvidia's corporate bylaws gave the directors authority to remove Huang from his executive position. Section 32 of the company's amended and restated bylaws says an officer can be removed "with or without cause" through an affirmative vote of a majority of the directors in office.
Reuters reported that Nvidia had 11 directors, all but Huang considered independent. The provision meant the board did not need to establish criminal wrongdoing or wait for the investigation to conclude before taking action on his position as an officer.
His board membership, however, involved a separate process. The bylaws distinguish between removing an executive officer and removing a director, for which shareholder voting requirements apply. Nvidia's announcement says Huang resigned from both positions; it does not say that directors removed him from the board.
The Allegations Behind The Investigation
The scrutiny involved two distinct sets of reports. One concerned Alice Huang, a former executive associated with Singapore-based computing company Megaspeed, who US authorities reportedly suspected of links to China's Ministry of State Security. Media reports alleged that she had a close relationship with Jensen Huang and that information about Nvidia technology may have reached Chinese officials.
A separate report alleged that Huang had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice-president of healthcare, who reportedly worked under him. These remain media-reported allegations, not findings announced by Nvidia's board.
The distinction is particularly important in the case involving Alice Huang. Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs said on October 31 that its government had neither expressed concerns about her alleged intelligence links nor investigated her on that basis. It confirmed separately that investigations into Megaspeed were ongoing. Beijing also rejected the espionage allegations, calling them unsubstantiated.
Nvidia's earlier statement described its inquiry as an investigation into reports that Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. It did not accuse him of espionage or say that company secrets had been compromised.
Washington And The Stakes For Nvidia
The crisis had also drawn congressional attention. On November 5, three Republican House committee chairmen requested a closed-door briefing from Huang on his reported interactions with Alice Huang and Nvidia's safeguards against foreign intelligence activity, proposing November 18 for the session. On Wednesday, Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons asked the administration to preserve records concerning Nvidia's advanced-chip exports to China, Megaspeed and the reported intelligence operation.
Huang's departure raises a question beyond the company's immediate succession: how much of Nvidia's strategy and execution was tied to its founder? The company has become central to the global AI infrastructure buildout, with an ecosystem connecting chip suppliers, cloud providers, data-centre operators and major AI developers.
"The risk is not that Nvidia suddenly loses its technology roadmap ... that roadmap is largely visible for the next several years. The risk is execution. Jensen has been the chief conductor of an extraordinarily complex system," said Michael Feldman, portfolio manager at ClearBridge Investments, as reported by Reuters.
That challenge now falls to Kress and Nvidia's wider leadership team. The company has said its operations, customer commitments and product roadmap will continue without interruption. Its next major test comes on November 17, when it is scheduled to announce its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results.
The board has not provided a timeline for appointing a permanent CEO. What remains unresolved, too, is what happened inside the Wednesday meeting: whether Huang's resignation followed a direct ultimatum, a formal board decision or his own choice to step aside. Until Nvidia discloses more, the sequence points to a boardroom confrontation, but not its precise outcome.
