Jensen Huang steps down as Nvidia CEO amid affairs scandal

The face of AI steps down

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned following reports of two extramarital affairs, one allegedly involving a Chinese spy. The 63-year-old founded Nvidia in 1993 and built it into the company powering the AI boom.

Huang's global influence

Huang joined President Donald Trump on Air Force One in May for a trip to China to meet President Xi Jinping.

No succession plan in place

Nvidia has been run by Huang as a singular figure with no second-in-command. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress has been named interim CEO. Harvey Jones has been appointed chairman.

The spy connection

Alice Huang, with whom the Nvidia CEO had a romantic affair, was identified by U.S.intelligence as recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to gather information on Jensen Huang, according to The New York Times.

Lawmakers demand answers

Senate Banking Committee member Kevin Cramer told CNBC that Huang is vulnerable to extortion and blackmail. Cramer said as a national security matter, the risk cannot be run with someone in Huang's position.

“What bothers me at the end of it is what we don't know is what she knows about him that can be utilized.”

Nvidia's troubled streak

Nvidia's stock is on pace for its sixth straight weekly drop, the longest losing streak since two thousand twelve. This includes a nine percent slump last week after midterm elections resulted in sweeping Democratic victories.

Earnings expectations remain high

Nvidia is scheduled to report quarterly results on Tuesday. Analysts project ninety-two percent year-over-year revenue growth to one hundred nine point two billion dollars, up eighteen-fold from the same quarter in two thousand twenty-two.

From graphics to AI dominance

Huang founded Nvidia to make chips for computer graphics for video games and rendering. In the early two thousands, he saw an opportunity to put GPUs to work for computationally intense projects, eventually making Nvidia…

Huang controlled GPU allocation

Huang became the ultimate decider of how, when and where GPUs get allocated. The biggest buyers were hyperscalers Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, which needed chips to build their own AI services and make them…

Standardizing on Nvidia

Huang wanted the world standardizing on Nvidia. Last year he demanded that Oracle buy additional Nvidia networking hardware if it wanted allocation to state-of-the-art Grace Blackwell chips, according to two people familiar with the deal.

Huang's personal deal-making

When hosting entrepreneurs at Nvidia's Silicon Valley headquarters for pitch meetings, only Huang asked questions despite thirty Nvidia employees being present.

Supporting struggling startups

Tomás Puig, founder and CEO of enterprise AI startup Alembic, said that following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in two thousand twenty-three, his company was down to weeks of cash.

“I emailed Jensen, and they prepaid two years of invoices so we could keep the lights on and people kept their jobs.”

Huang's last act as CEO

On Monday, a day after publicly apologizing for being unfaithful to his wife, Huang emailed the CEO of AI infrastructure startup Fireworks AI, which was dealing with high-profile cyberattacks.

How Nvidia handles this matters

Former Cisco CEO John Chambers told CNBC's Fast Money on Wednesday that how companies handle a crisis determines their future.

“How companies handle a crisis determines their future.”