Nvidia\u2019s board of directors is weighing the future of Jensen Huang, the company\u2019s chief executive, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, after revelations that he had an affair with an executive who reports to him as well as with a woman whom U.S. intelligence has identified as a Chinese spy.<\/p>\n
The board met Wednesday to discuss Mr. Huang but has made no announcement about any decision regarding Nvidia\u2019s longtime leader. The company didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Any potential change in Nvidia\u2019s leadership would open an uncertain chapter for the premier maker of artificial intelligence chips, and would have widespread ripple effects. The Silicon Valley firm is a linchpin of the A.I. boom and one of the world\u2019s most valuable public companies, controlling an estimated 90 percent of the market for the computer chips used in the big A.I. projects that are driving the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n
That dominance has made Mr. Huang one of the world\u2019s wealthiest people, as well as an ally of President Trump\u2019s. Mr. Trump was previously informed about Mr. Huang\u2019s relationship with the woman believed to be a Chinese intelligence asset but took no action. He has defended Mr. Huang over the past week, saying he was an \u201chonorable man\u201d who did not know the woman was a Chinese agent.<\/p>\n
Few Silicon Valley executives \u2014 with the possible exception of Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, and Steve Jobs of Apple \u2014 have been as synonymous with their companies as Mr. Huang, 63. He was a founder of Nvidia in 1993. He manages all aspects of its business as chief executive, and his family members have steadily risen through the company\u2019s ranks. With a 3.56 percent stake, he is also Nvidia\u2019s largest individual shareholder. He has had such a tight grip on the company that there is no clear successor.<\/p>\n
\u201cJensen is very much the command and control,\u201d said Patrick Moorhead, the founder of Moor Insights & Strategy, a technology research firm. \u201cJust like nobody replaced Steve Jobs and ran the company like him, nobody can replace Jensen. There has to be a different operating system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Public scrutiny of Mr. Huang began after The New York Times first reported<\/a> last month that American intelligence agencies had discovered that he had developed a close relationship with a Chinese citizen and chip buyer, who U.S. officials concluded was gathering intelligence for Beijing.<\/p>\n The chip buyer was Alice Huang or Huang Le, whose biography said she worked in China as a TV reporter before becoming a top executive at a Singapore-based data center company called Megaspeed that had become one of Nvidia\u2019s biggest customers in Southeast Asia. Megaspeed has bought more than $4.8 billion in chips since June 2024.<\/p>\n The relationship raised questions of U.S. national security, given that the U.S. government had barred Chinese companies from buying the advanced chips. It also stoked geopolitical concerns as the United States and China compete for dominance in A.I.<\/p>\n China has denied the espionage claims. Ms. Huang has not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Nvidia\u2019s board has largely been supportive of Mr. Huang, who is also on the board. The other members include outside executives and the company\u2019s early investors and longtime partners. They have served on the board for a combined 161 years, and many have a long history with Mr. Huang.<\/p>\n But after The Financial Times reported last week that Mr. Huang\u2019s relationship with Ms. Huang was romantic, Nvidia\u2019s board said on Sunday that it was opening an investigation<\/a> into his conduct. It has hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz<\/a> to help lead its investigation.<\/p>\n That same day, Mr. Huang admitted that he had been unfaithful to his wife, Lori Huang, to whom he has been married for 41 years. He said he was \u201cproud and grateful to be an American\u201d and apologized for his behavior.<\/p>\n \u201cMy family bears no responsibility for my choices. I do,\u201d he said in a message to Nvidia employees. \u201cPlease give them privacy.\u201d His two children, Madison and Spencer, also work at the company.<\/p>\n Mr. Huang\u2019s acknowledgment of the affair and the company\u2019s investigation immediately set off a firestorm. Nvidia\u2019s shares are down about a third from their peak at the start of October, a decline of more than $1.5 trillion in market value.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, The Times reported that Mr. Huang also had an extramarital relationship<\/a> with Kimberly Powell, an Nvidia vice president who reports to him. Under Nvidia\u2019s code of conduct<\/a>, employees are told to \u201cavoid situations where our actions create conflict\u201d including \u201cpersonal relationships,\u201d and the company says that it \u201cpromptly investigates reports of misconduct.\u201d Many corporations have policies prohibiting managers from having relationships with subordinates.<\/p>\n Mr. Huang and Ms. Powell, 48, were captured on video being affectionate at a San Jose, Calif., hotel during an Nvidia conference in March. Ms. Powell, who is married, has not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n After The Times approached Nvidia on Wednesday about the second affair, the board began deliberating about Mr. Huang\u2019s future at the company.<\/p>\n Kalley Huang contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nvidia\u2019s board of directors is weighing the future of Jensen Huang, the company\u2019s chief executive, according to two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[177084,182,181,507,262615,7510,7511,5648,302301,126432,382213,94976,74,3479,382212],"class_list":["post-914833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-adultery","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-boards-of-directors","tag-computer-chips","tag-computers-and-the-internet","tag-donald-j","tag-espionage-and-intelligence-services","tag-huang","tag-jen-hsun","tag-nvidia-corporation","tag-technology","tag-trump","tag-wachtell-lipton-rosen-u0026-katz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}