Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia CEO on November 12, effective immediately, two weeks after the New York Times tied him to an alleged Chinese intelligence asset. CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found.
The October 29 Times story centered on Alice Huang, managing director of Megaspeed, a Singapore datacentre company that imported billions of dollars of Nvidia GPUs. US authorities reportedly concluded she worked as an intelligence asset for China, which denies it. Megaspeed had faced chip-smuggling allegations, but the company and Nvidia say it was cleared. A Nvidia spokesperson, John Rizzo, called Huang's contact with her routine customer relations.
On November 8, Huang admitted to an affair with an unnamed person and apologized. The board opened an independent investigation, saying it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised. Nvidia hired the law firm Wachtell Lipton to lead it on November 10.
On November 11, the Times, citing five unnamed sources, reported a second relationship, with Nvidia vice president Kimberly Powell. Neither Nvidia nor Powell has confirmed it. The Wall Street Journal reported the same day that the board was preparing to oust Huang.
The stock tells a messier story than the headlines. Shares fell about 21% from the October 28 close, shedding a couple hundred billion dollars, but that overlapped with a broader tech selloff over AI worries, the midterm elections and datacentre opposition. In the days after November 8, the year's low was still March 30, 2026, set on fears of slowing AI spending and China export rules. Then after-hours trading on November 11 hit the lowest level since June 2025. That would sit below the March figure, so the cushion of "not the lowest this year" was gone, at least in after-hours trading.
The exit looks driven by accumulated pressure rather than a finding. The investigation was a day or two old in practical terms, and the spy claim rests on reported US government assessments that China rejects. Intel's Brian Krzanich left in 2018 over a relationship with an employee, with no national security angle. Huang's case has both, and only the investigation can separate them.