Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Resigns as Affair Scandal Deepens

Jensen Huang has resigned as Nvidia’s president, CEO and board member, effective immediately, ending his leadership of the chipmaker as it faces an investigation and fresh allegations about his personal relationships.

Nvidia confirmed the departure on Thursday, November 12, appointing chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim CEO. The leadership change follows the independent investigation announced earlier this week, a major escalation from the board’s initial public support for Huang.

Nvidia shares opened at $150.99 US on Thursday, down about 13.1% from Wednesday’s $173.73 US close.

Kress will retain her finance role while Nvidia searches for a permanent successor, considering candidates both inside and outside the company. She joined Nvidia in September 2013 after finance roles at Cisco and Microsoft. The board also appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever chair.

What led to the departure?

On November 8, Huang acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife in a message Nvidia published to employees. He apologized to his family and colleagues, accepted responsibility and said he would cooperate with an independent investigation into national-security concerns raised by news reports.

That same day, Nvidia’s board said it was examining reports that Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. Independent directors and outside counsel were overseeing the review. At the time, the board said it had no reason to believe national security or Nvidia’s secrets had been compromised. Those concerns remain allegations, not an announced finding of the investigation.

A separate allegation emerged on November 11. The New York Times reported that Huang had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare, who reported to him. According to Reuters‘ account of that reporting, the newspaper cited five people who had worked at Nvidia. Reuters said Nvidia did not immediately respond to its request for comment. The reported relationship has not been independently established here.

What happens next at Nvidia?

“We expect the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption,” Jones said in Nvidia’s announcement. Its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results remain scheduled for November 17, providing the next opportunity for investors to hear from the company under its interim leadership.

The upheaval arrives during an enormous expansion of Nvidia’s AI business. The company reported $96.2 billion US in revenue for its previous quarter, including $89 billion US from data centres. Its hardware also underpins Canadian projects, including Telus’s planned AI data centres in British Columbia.

For many, Jensen Huang is Nvidia, much as Steve Jobs embodied Apple. Losing a co-founder so closely tied to the company’s identity recalls Jobs’s departure from Apple in 1985, though the circumstances are different: Nvidia has announced Huang’s resignation, not his dismissal.

For customers and partners, the immediate question is how the leadership transition unfolds while that expansion continues, rather than any announced change to products or contracts.

Do you think Nvidia can maintain its momentum without Huang at the helm?