Nvidia's board of directors removed Jensen Huang as chief executive on Thursday, just three days after giving him a vote of confidence and less than a month after a national security scandal and an affair allegation began tearing through the company he founded in 1993.
The post Nvidia Ousts Jensen Huang from CEO Role, CFO Colette Kress Named Interim Boss appeared first on Breitbart.
Nvidia’s board of directors removed Jensen Huang as chief executive on Thursday, just three days after giving him a vote of confidence and less than a month after a national security scandal and an affair allegation began tearing through the company he founded in 1993.
The Nvidia board reached its decision after an hours-long meeting Wednesday at the roughly $4 trillion company. It capped a remarkable stretch even by the standards of a tech industry that has watched Nvidia become the linchpin of the artificial intelligence boom. Huang had been fighting to keep his job since October 29, when the media reported on a “close relationship” between him and a woman named Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and executive at Megaspeed, the largest buyer of Nvidia chips in Southeast Asia, who U.S. intelligence suspects of spying for Beijing.
The company announced that CFO Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO as it searches for a permanent replacement:
Colette Kress, current Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NVIDIA, has agreed to serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer. Kress will continue to serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer while serving as Interim Chief Executive Officer until a permanent successor has been named. The Board is initiating a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer and will consider internal and external candidates.
Kress has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NVIDIA since joining the company in September 2013. During her tenure, she has led the company’s finance organization and has played a key role in NVIDIA’s growth and evolution. Prior to joining NVIDIA, Kress spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at leading technology companies, including Cisco and Microsoft.
The Board of Directors appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever Chair of the Board. Mr. Jones has been an entrepreneur, technology executive, and active venture investor for over 30 years, including serving as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of Synopsys.
Investigators who reviewed classified intelligence findings concluded that Alice Huang dined with the AI kingpin while secretly funneling information to the Chinese government, according to sources briefed on the findings. Photos from June 2024 show the two drinking whiskey together with other figures in the AI industry, and the following May they attended a business dinner with other AI suppliers at a restaurant in Taipei. Alice Huang had reportedly boasted about her access to the American market. This spring, Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw the drafting of a classified memo that warned senior Trump administration officials about Jensen Huang’s ties to her, the same sources said. The FBI is now investigating the relationship, though President Trump has said he believes investigators will find nothing criminal. The scrutiny landed awkwardly for Huang, who had been pushing the Trump administration to loosen restrictions on Nvidia’s chip sales to China.
Then came a second report, alleging an extramarital affair between Huang and Nvidia Vice President of Health Care Kimberly Powell, who reports directly to him. Powell joined the company in 2008 to help bring its graphics-processing technology into medical imaging equipment, rose to senior director in 2016 and was named vice president of health care by late 2017. The Times reported that Huang and Powell behaved “lovey-dovey” at a San Jose hotel during the company’s annual developer conference in March, and that a bystander who filmed the encounter was later sequestered by Huang’s security team and offered a nondisclosure agreement. The Times said it had not viewed the recording. Nvidia’s code of conduct warns employees against conflicts of interest involving personal relationships. When a Times reporter contacted Huang about Powell on Wednesday, he answered only, “I don’t think you should be talking to me directly,” before hanging up.
The scandal spilled well past boardrooms and committee letters. On Sunday, the same day the Nvidia board offered Huang its vote of confidence, he admitted to his wife of 41 years, Lori Huang, that he had been unfaithful, telling her, “There is no excuse for what I did.” He later emailed Nvidia staffers to apologize. “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” he wrote. “Throughout my life, my family has given me love and support. They deserve my honesty and loyalty.” He continued: “Instead, I let them down and damaged the life we built together. I take full responsibility for what I did and the hurt I caused, and I accept the criticism that comes with it.” He closed by addressing his family directly: “To my wife and family: I love you. I know an apology cannot undo what I have done. I hope our family will heal and that, over time, I can earn back your trust.”
The company has already paid for it financially. Shares of Nvidia have fallen 10 percent in pre-market trading.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.
