Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned. What happens next?

Under cofounder Jensen Huang, Nvidia has become the engine for the AI boom — and one of the tech industry’s biggest environmental liabilities. Its sought-after chips have triggered a new wave of water- and chemical-intensive factories, drained power grids from inside massive data centers, and set the stage for a looming e-waste problem.

Under Huang’s leadership, Nvidia clashed with environmental groups seeking to hold the company accountable for its so-called “hidden” emissions. Huang has talked up the idea of using AI to fight climate change while his company’s supply chain emissions ballooned. Nvidia’s investments, meanwhile, have supported the buildout of data centers that have sparked intense backlash for both their local and global impact. Now, after the CEO’s shocking resignation amid a sprawling sex-and-espionage scandal, advocates are urging Nvidia to turn the page.

Usually, we’d be offering to answer your questions about a news event, but honestly we don’t really have any answers about what the hell is going on over at Nvidia. I can’t speak for Nilay but at the rate Jensen Huang’s new mistresses are dropping, I am concerned we are approaching an affair Singularity. If things don’t decelerate soon, we may be looking at existential risk. Maybe the future of AI really does depend on Jensen’s sex life, but not in the way I was thinking!

As much fun (?) as we are having with all the assorted ladies, it’s important to stay focused on what’s really important: Chips and China. President Donald Trump was reportedly warned about Alice “No Relation” Huang’s possible connections to China’s spy apparatus last year, and again before his China trip in May. Nvidia reportedly intervened into a Commerce Department investigation into Alice’s company.

Nvidia announced this morning that Jensen Huang has resigned as CEO following reports of two affairs, including one with an alleged Chinese spy and one with a direct report. The situation surrounding Huang has unfolded quickly, with The New York Times only reporting on Friday that Huang and the suspected spy were “close” before other dominoes started to fall, leading to a swift fall from grace for one of the biggest names in technology. (Hours after Huang’s resignation was announced, Reuters reported that he also had an “intimate relationship” with another Nvidia employee.)

Prominent voices in technology have come out in support of Huang, with some calling the resignation a “waste” and a sad day for “all humanity.” The narrative among those leaders on X, at least, is that Huang’s resignation was rushed — perhaps an overreaction to salacious news stories about his personal life. Some others have had a more neutral reaction, commenting more on Huang’s achievements at the company’s helm. You can see a collection of those responses below.

I was certain, until the story of Jensen Huang’s second affair hit, that Huang was bulletproof. After all, why wouldn’t he be? He’s placed himself indispensably at the center of the AI industry and famously had no succession plan at Nvidia. In fact, he’s the only CEO Nvidia has ever had. L’état c’est moi.

Then two stories were published nearly back to back on Wednesday: one alleging Huang had an affair with his subordinate Kimberly Powell, another that the board was meeting to consider his ouster. First thing Thursday morning, Nvidia announced Huang had resigned. One of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley was out.

Today, we’re talking about the Jensen Huang scandal at Nvidia, which is developing so quickly that we had to do an emergency update of this intro minutes before publishing this episode.

Huang just resigned from his position as CEO of Nvidia as news of his affairs, including with an alleged Chinese spy, threatened to engulf the company.

Jensen Huang resigned as CEO of Nvidia this morning, a company he co-founded in 1993. The decision came following the company’s board opening an investigation into multiple extramarital affairs Huang had with a direct report and an alleged Chinese spy. The new, and first, Chair of the Board, Harvey Jones, shared news of Huang’s resignation with the company in an email, which also announced CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO.

You can read the full text of the board’s internal memo and Kress’s first message to employees as interim CEO below.

Nvidia’s board announced that Jensen Huang — its longtime co-founder, president, and CEO — has resigned after reports of two extramarital affairs, one with an alleged Chinese spy and one with an Nvidia executive who reported to Huang. Following a late Wednesday night meeting, the board accepted Huang’s letter of resignation as CEO, president, and board member, effective immediately, with current CFO Colette Kress appointed interim CEO. Kress has been with Nvidia since 2013, with previous stops at Cisco and Microsoft.

Nvidia is also changing its corporate structure in Huang’s absence, appointing former Synopsys CEO Harvey C. Jones as the first board chair in its history. The statement does not include a statement from Huang, while Kress is quoted as saying:

Nvidia’s board is preparing to dismiss CEO Jensen Huang following a report from The New York Times about a second alleged extramarital affair, just days after he admitted to a separate affair with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy, The Wall Street Journal reports. The second alleged affair was with an executive who reports to him, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, Kimberly Powell, according to the Times.

The Nvidia board will meet as soon as Wednesday night to decide on Huang’s future at the company, according to the Journal. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge.

As espionage targets go, Jensen Huang is perhaps one of the least surprising on Earth. The Nvidia CEO runs one of the world’s most valuable companies, controls the in-demand technology fueling the AI boom, and is cozy with presidents, CEOs, and all manner of important people. He also wears a cool leather jacket.

Which makes Huang’s admission that he had an affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy — reportedly while her spying was known to US intelligence and even President Donald Trump — all the more shocking. The fallout goes well beyond his marriage, his reputation, or Nvidia itself. Experts tell The Verge the incident threatens to disrupt the entire US AI industry, potentially jeopardize national security, and could undermine America’s efforts to maintain its fragile technological lead over China in AI.

It’s difficult to overstate Nvidia’s power in today’s AI landscape. The company’s chips are the bedrock upon which advanced AI technology in the US is being built, and demand has consistently outpaced supply for years. Nvidia has also been an influential investor in a wide range of up-and-coming AI companies in recent years, with about $99 billion worth of equity investments in frontier AI labs, neoclouds, infrastructure companies, and more. Its chief executive has even become close with President Donald Trump.

This is why, as both cofounder and longtime CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang would be a valuable target for a foreign adversary with sights on the American AI industry.

President Trump held a White House press briefing earlier today and responded to several questions about his knowledge of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy. Huang said this weekend that he had been “​​unfaithful” to his wife, and the company has opened an investigation into Huang.

Recent articles from The New York Times indicated that Trump had been aware of a relationship between Huang and Alice Huang, the suspected spy, before information about it became public. In October, The New York Times reported that Trump had been briefed “roughly a year ago” on intelligence that Huang and the alleged spy, Alice Huang, had developed a close relationship, but he didn’t do anything with the information. Yesterday, the NYT reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio helped draft a memo to Trump officials about the relationship before Trump visited China in May.

I would prefer that these people’s sex lives were none of my business but I guess we have to talk about Jensen Huang and the National Security Incident. Who could have guessed that the guy who was out here signing titties might not have great judgment about how to behave around women?

Alice Huang — no relation to Jensen — is a former TV reporter. That was before she became “an executive” at Megaspeed, which bought $4.8 billion of hard-to-get Nvidia chips, starting around the time she was being photographed with Jensen in a Taipei bar in 2024. “To many in the industry, the well-funded push by Megaspeed into A.I. appeared to come out of nowhere,” The New York Times wrote, tactfully. Our girl Alice is also an alleged honeypot who was recruited by the Chinese Ministry of State Security. (China is denying all this, btw.)

On Sunday, Nvidia announced it was launching an investigation into CEO Jensen Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, an AI executive and agent of the Chinese government.

In addition to the Board of Directors announcing the investigation, Huang sent a memo to Nvidia employees acknowledging the affair. You can read the full text below.