Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns

Jensen Huang has stepped down as President, chief executive officer and board member of Nvidia, effective immediately, the board said in a statement. The company's chief financial officer, Colette Kress, will act as interim chief executive while the board said it will consider both internal and external candidates for a permanent replacement.

The board launched an investigation on 8 November, shortly after a New York Times report claimed Huang was the target of a Chinese intelligence operation linked to Alice Huang, who is not related to him. The Times later reported that the pair were seen together in public in June 2024 and May 2025 and that Huang was alleged to have had a relationship with a direct report at Nvidia. A source familiar with the matter told WIRED that the alleged affair and his business dealings with Singapore‑based AI firm Megaspeed, where Alice Huang previously held a senior role, likely weighed more heavily in the board’s decision than the espionage allegations.

Huang emailed the whole company on Sunday, acknowledging the affair, apologising to his family and staff and promising to cooperate with the internal probe. He has been married to Lori Huang since 1985 and their two children hold executive posts at the firm.

Analysts have highlighted former co‑founder Chris Malachowsky, who started Nvidia with Huang and Curtis Priem, and high‑performance computing head Ian Buck as possible successors. "He could protect Nvidia's technological edge, but his ability to manage the wider commercial relationships and geopolitical challenges would face scrutiny," said Charu Chanana, investment strategist at Saxo.

Nvidia, co‑founded by Huang in 1993 after a brainstorming session in a Denny’s diner, was initially known for gaming graphics chips before pivoting in 2012 after the AlexNet breakthrough to dominate AI hardware. The firm briefly surpassed a $4 trillion valuation in the summer of 2025 and, as of September 2026, controlled about 90 percent of the GPU market.