Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Resigns After Alleged Ties to Chinese Spy and Subordinate

Jensen Huang stepped down as chief executive officer of Nvidia on Wednesday.

The 63-year-old co-founder resigned after reports revealed he had extramarital relationships with two women. One was a married healthcare executive who reported directly to him. The other was Alice Huang, a Singapore-based businesswoman considered by US intelligence to be an agent for China.

Nvidia’s board of directors announced the leadership change in a statement. Collette Kress, the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer since 2013, will serve as interim CEO. The board also appointed Harvey Jones, former chief executive of Synopsys, as its first chairman. This move ends a decades-long governance structure that relied solely on Huang.

Stock prices for the company, currently the second-largest publicly traded firm in the world, fell by more than 11 percent following the announcement. The board convened late Wednesday to discuss Huang’s future. A source close to the matter told NBC News that the White House was aware of the meeting. The board said it would search for a permanent CEO, considering both internal and external candidates.

The resignation follows a series of revelations that shook the Silicon Valley chipmaker. The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing five people who worked at Nvidia, that Huang maintained a relationship with the healthcare executive. This arrangement appeared to violate the company’s code of conduct. Neither Nvidia nor the executive responded to requests for comment on the report.

The story gained traction after disclosures regarding Alice Huang emerged. She held an executive position at Megaspeed, a Singapore company that purchased advanced chips from Nvidia. Megaspeed and related firms are under criminal investigation in the United States for allegedly illegally bringing US-made chips into China. Alice Huang and Jensen Huang share a surname but are not related.

State Secretary Marco Rubio circulated a memorandum to Trump administration officials earlier this spring. The document outlined US intelligence assessments that Huang was in a romantic relationship with a Chinese intelligence operative. The New York Times and Financial Times first reported on this memo last week. An ex-national security official noted that Alice Huang may not have been a career spy for China’s Ministry of State Security. Instead, she may have been asked to collaborate and share information using her access to Jensen Huang.

Nvidia announced on Sunday that it was investigating whether Huang was the victim of a foreign intelligence operation. On Tuesday, the company hired a former US federal prosecutor and his law firm to conduct that investigation.