Jensen Huang has resigned as CEO of Nvidia following reports that U.S. intelligence agencies believed he had been involved with a woman working as a Chinese intelligence asset.
Following stories concerning Alice Huang—an ex-executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center firm that purchased billions in Nvidia hardware—the chief executive of 33 years suddenly stepped down. Fortune reported that the news followed an October European charm offensive where “We're not your largest investor, but we are your best investor,” Jensen Huang said.
Just one day under a week after the stories broke, Huang issued an apology memo to all 42,000 Nvidia employees, admitting to marital infidelity and expressing deep remorse. An independent probe was initiated by Nvidia’s directors, U.S. lawmakers called upon Huang for questioning, and government authorities confirmed they were looking into the situation.
Prediction sites began to take bets on whether Huang would resign, and the situation escalated further when the New York Times reported allegations of a second affair with an Nvidia executive who reported directly to Huang. By the next morning, Huang had submitted his resignation, and Nvidia announced his departure alongside the appointment of chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim CEO without giving a reason.
This exit arrives during a precarious period for the artificial intelligence boom, characterized by anxiety over escalating interest rates, warnings regarding existential dangers posed by AI, and voter backlash against data centers manifested during the November midterm elections. Critics have previously warned that Nvidia’s AI investments created a risky circular web in which Nvidia pours money into AI labs and data center companies that in turn buy Nvidia chips. Nvidia said that as of the end of July it had invested nearly $50 billion into leading AI model companies alone, with equity investments across the AI ecosystem totaling twice that amount.
The company has used its investment-grade credit to help AI companies and neocloud data center providers obtain financing, totaling $170 billion on commitments of this kind, including guarantees valued at $105 billion to OpenAI for one facility in Ohio.
Negotiations have taken place between Nvidia and a group of Wall Street lenders to support a $500 billion initiative converting AI processors into negotiable securities, functioning as a central bank for AI that detractors argued concealed lagging demand and inflated a perilous financial bubble.
“they're going to become just another chip company,” Jay Goldberg, an analyst at Seaport Research Partners, said.
“This episode makes clear what we have been alleging the whole time, which is that Nvidia is deeply compromised,” said Brad Carson, who leads Americans for Responsible Innovation, an advocacy organization pushing for oversight within the artificial intelligence and technology sectors.
“I’m gonna invest in you! I’m gonna invest in you!” Jensen Huang said.
