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According to AnewZ, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is stepping down. The decision has raised uncertainty about the company’s future amid reports of his ties to a woman suspected by US officials of spying for China.
According to information released by the company on Thursday, Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO until a permanent successor is appointed. Former Synopsys CEO and Nvidia board member Harvey Jones has been appointed the board’s first chair.
Nvidia co-founder Huang will also leave the company’s board. He is the company’s fourth-largest shareholder, with a stake of about 3.61%.
The company’s shares fell more than 10% in premarket trading, affecting the broader market.
Investigation and allegations involving Huang
Pressure on Huang increased after reports that the 63-year-old married executive was involved with a Chinese businesswoman whom US officials suspect of spying for Beijing. A person familiar with the matter said Nvidia’s board considered removing him on Wednesday.
That day, The New York Times reported that Huang was also involved with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reports directly to him.
At the center of the allegations is a relationship between Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based cloud computing company Megaspeed. Media reports say US officials concluded that Alice Huang was an operative for Chinese intelligence. Beijing has denied the espionage allegations.
Jensen and Alice Huang, who are not related, have been photographed together in Taiwan, Singapore and California. Megaspeed is an official Nvidia cloud partner and has priority access to the company’s chips. Washington is reportedly investigating suspicions that the company helped deliver advanced artificial intelligence chips subject to US export controls to China.
Earlier this month, Nvidia’s board began investigating whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. Independent board members are leading the investigation with support from outside lawyers. The board had initially expressed confidence in Huang’s leadership.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump said Huang had “done an incredible job for his country.” Trump said Huang had told him he did not know the woman was a spy.
Potential impact of Huang’s departure on the AI industry
Huang’s departure has raised questions about Nvidia’s future and the development of the artificial intelligence industry, which relies heavily on the company’s technology and investment. He helped build the AI ecosystem by directing the company’s growing financial reserves to cloud service providers, suppliers and some of the industry’s largest research laboratories.
Investor interest in AI companies’ shares was already weak. Rapidly rising costs, mounting debt and the fast spending of cash by technology giants—traditionally known for holding large reserves—have raised concerns about whether the huge sums invested in AI will deliver the expected returns.
Huang’s departure could also affect US chip export policy. He has advocated preserving Nvidia’s access to the lucrative Chinese market and has cultivated close ties with Trump.
Nvidia has grown from a maker of graphics chips for gaming into the world’s most valuable company. Its rise has become one of the defining developments of the AI boom.
For many years, the company was known for powerful graphics chips prized by gamers. Their ability to perform many calculations simultaneously made them essential to AI development and turned Nvidia into a strategic player in the US-China competition for technological dominance.
The company’s success made Huang a high-profile executive. In Taiwan and South Korea, fans have asked him to sign books, posters and even their bodies. His influence has also been felt in financial markets: mentioning another company at an event could move its share price.
