Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns amid espionage probe and personal scandal
Jensen Huang has resigned as Nvidia CEO following reports of extramarital affairs and a US Department of Justice investigation into alleged Chinese espionage ties. Colette Kress, the company's CFO, has taken over as interim CEO while Nvidia searches for a permanent successor.
Jensen Huang, who led Nvidia for over 33 years, resigned Thursday following reports of two extramarital affairs, including one with VP for healthcare Kimberly Powell, and a third affair reported by Reuters. Colette Kress, Nvidia's CFO and interim CEO, has been with the company for over 13 years. The Wall Street Journal reported that Huang described Kress as a "Deer in the headlights" during a summer presentation regarding billions of dollars in guarantees for data center operators. Kress had questioned credit-based deals involving Huang's son-in-law, Nico Caprez, and previously scaled back Nvidia's commitment to OpenAI's Ohio Data Center project from $250 billion to $105 billion. Nvidia is investigating a possible Chinese espionage plot and searching for a permanent CEO. Separately, Huang is under scrutiny following reports of an extramarital affair with Alice Wang, a former Chinese state television employee and HSBC/CITIC Securities executive who became Managing Director of Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based cloud provider. Short-seller Kalper alleges Megaspeed, a subsidiary of Swift Data, received $2.9 billion in refundable deposits in late 2024, potentially linked to Alibaba’s Singapore subsidiary Apex, which recorded $4.1 billion in pre-payments in March 2025. Megaspeed’s Malaysian subsidiary Speedmatrix purchased Nvidia GPUs, allegedly using fake servers at Bridge Data Centers (owned by Bain Capital) to disguise shipments to China, circumventing US export controls. A US Department of Commerce official found packaged GPUs in Malaysia in 2024. The US Department of Justice is investigating Megaspeed and Wang, who allegedly left China for months during the probe. Huang admitted to infidelity and was invited to a non-public briefing by three Republican committee chairs. He has argued that China is not an AI enemy and that sales restrictions are a mistake, though analysts suggest his pro-China stance aligns with Nvidia’s financial interests rather than being coerced.