Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive of Nvidia, effective immediately, ending a 33-year run as the company's only chief executive. Nvidia announced the resignation on Thursday 12 November 2026. Chief financial officer Colette Kress takes over as interim chief executive while the board searches for a permanent successor. The company gave no reason for the departure — but the resignation followed reports, from The New York Times, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal, of two extramarital affairs, one of them with a woman whom US authorities have concluded was a Chinese intelligence asset, and a board investigation into whether Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence operation.
Nvidia's logo. (Logo: Wikimedia Commons, CC0)
What happened
Jensen Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and was its only chief executive for 33 years.
Nvidia's board announced the change in a short statement on Thursday morning, 12 November 2026. Huang resigned as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board, effective immediately. The company filed a Form 8-K with the US Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing that it had accepted his resignation — identifying him as Jen-Hsun Huang — on 11 November, effective immediately. The release thanked Huang for his "immeasurable contributions" and gave no reason for the resignation. It included no comment from Huang himself, and he has not commented publicly since.
Three appointments came with the announcement. Colette Kress, Nvidia's executive vice-president and chief financial officer — CFO since 2013, at the company since September 2013 — agreed to serve as interim chief executive while keeping her CFO duties, until a permanent successor is named. The board said it is starting a search for a permanent chief executive and will consider internal and external candidates, with no timeline disclosed. And the board appointed longtime director Harvey C. Jones — a former chief executive of Synopsys who has sat on Nvidia's board since 1993 — as its first-ever chairman of the board.
Formally, the resignation was voluntary. In practice, it followed a week of reporting that the board was moving against him. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday 11 November that the board was preparing to oust Huang, and Reuters reported that directors met late on Wednesday to decide his future. Huang also gave up his board seat. Kress wrote a memo to employees after the announcement, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The reason behind it
Nvidia has not stated a reason, and the board's investigation has not published findings. What is known comes from the reporting of The New York Times, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal — and every allegation below is presented as reported, not as established fact.
The first affair: Alice Huang and the espionage allegation
The New York Times first reported the business connection between Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, a former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data-centre and cloud company that is an Nvidia customer, in October 2025. According to reporting by The New York Times on 29 October 2026, the two had developed a relationship. Reuters later reported that US authorities had concluded Alice Huang was a Chinese intelligence asset — a suspected Chinese spy. US intelligence officials suspect her of spying for China, according to the reporting.
Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), the former Megaspeed executive named in the New York Times report of 29 October 2026. The report said US authorities had concluded she was a Chinese intelligence asset; she has not been charged with any crime, and China denies the allegations. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
This is the part of the story that turns a personal scandal into a national-security matter. A chief executive in a relationship with someone US authorities believe works for a foreign intelligence service raises questions about what information may have passed, and whether he was the target of an intelligence operation. The same Times report said Megaspeed's Malaysian sister company had imported at least $4.8 billion in advanced AI equipment containing Nvidia technology between June 2024 and February 2026 — part of why US authorities were examining whether the company helped Chinese firms get around US export restrictions. That is why the board opened an independent investigation, why Congress is involved, and why the market reacted the way it did. A private affair alone would not have produced this outcome.
Megaspeed, the Singapore data-centre firm at the centre of the story. (Logo: Wikimedia Commons)
The second affair: Kimberly Powell
On Wednesday 11 November 2026, The New York Times reported, citing five former Nvidia employees, that Huang had a second extramarital relationship — with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice-president of healthcare, who reports directly to him. The Times reported that both Huang and Powell are married to other people. When the Times reached Huang by phone, he declined to comment, saying: "I don't think you should be talking to me directly." Nvidia declined to provide a statement, and Powell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare, named in the New York Times report of 11 November 2026. The report has not been confirmed by Nvidia, Huang or Powell. (Photo: Nvidia)
The board investigation and Huang's admission
On Sunday 8 November 2026, Nvidia announced that independent directors, assisted by outside legal counsel, would oversee an investigation into whether Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence operation. The same day, Huang acknowledged in a letter to staff that he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologized for violating his family's and employees' trust. Reuters reported that Huang admitted to an affair in that statement, without referring to Alice Huang by name.
A third allegation, reported after the resignation
Reuters reported on 12 November, citing two people familiar with the matter, that Huang had an intimate relationship with a second employee of Nvidia — a third relationship beyond the two already reported. Reuters is not naming the woman, said its attempts to reach her were unsuccessful, and said Nvidia declined to comment. This is a reported allegation only: it has not been confirmed by Nvidia, and the identity of the person has not been made public. It is included here because Reuters reported it, and it should be read as an allegation, not a finding.
The full timeline
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| April 1993 | Jensen Huang co-founds Nvidia with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. He becomes its first — and, until now, only — chief executive. |
| October 2025 | The New York Times first reports the business connection between Huang and Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer. |
| 29 October 2026 | The New York Times reports that Alice Huang had developed a relationship with Jensen Huang. Reuters later reports US authorities concluded she was a Chinese intelligence asset. |
| Sunday 8 November 2026 | Nvidia announces independent directors, assisted by outside legal counsel, will investigate whether Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence operation. Huang writes to staff admitting he was unfaithful to his wife and apologizing for violating his family's and employees' trust. |
| Wednesday 11 November 2026 | The Wall Street Journal reports the board is preparing to oust Huang; Reuters reports directors meet late that day to decide his future. The New York Times reports the second affair, with Kimberly Powell. Nvidia's shares fall about 8.6% in after-hours trading, to about $159. |
| Thursday 12 November 2026 | Nvidia announces Huang has resigned as president, CEO and board member, effective immediately. Colette Kress is named interim CEO; Harvey C. Jones is named the board's first-ever chairman. Reuters reports the third allegation — an intimate relationship with a second employee, according to two sources. Shares open more than 13% lower. |
| Tuesday 17 November 2026 | Nvidia reports third-quarter fiscal 2027 results as scheduled, at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific time, with an earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific time. |
| Wednesday 18 November 2026 | Colette Kress is to host a company meeting, as reported by The Times. |
Who runs Nvidia now
Colette Kress is the interim chief executive, and she keeps the finance job at the same time. She has been Nvidia's chief financial officer since 2013 and joined the company in September 2013, so she has overseen the company's finances for 13 years — through the crypto boom, the pandemic chip shortage, and the AI surge that made Nvidia the world's most valuable company. She is the first person other than Huang to run the company in its 33-year history. Her first big public test comes almost immediately: Nvidia reports third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday 17 November, and she is to host a company meeting on 18 November.
Colette Kress in 2017. Nvidia's chief financial officer since 2013, she became interim chief executive on 12 November 2026. (Photo: SiliconANGLE theCUBE / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0)
Harvey C. Jones is the board's first-ever chairman. He is a longtime Nvidia director — on the board since 1993, the year the company was founded — and a former chief executive of Synopsys, the chip-design software company. Nvidia had never had a board chairman before; the role was created as part of the leadership change.
The search for a permanent chief executive has begun, and the board says it will consider internal and external candidates. No timeline has been disclosed, and no public shortlist exists. Huang has said in the past that he does not believe in succession planning, and he has about 60 direct reports — a famously flat structure built around one person. That is the central problem for the board: the company was run, in effect, by one man for 33 years, and there is no obvious successor. President Trump has suggested Tim Cook, the former Apple chief executive, should replace Huang — a suggestion, not a board decision.
Huang speaking at the White House in April 2025, with President Donald Trump. (Official White House photo, public domain)
The stock reaction
The market reaction was immediate and severe, and it is worth reporting carefully, because the numbers changed through the day. The figures below are separate reports from different outlets at different points — not one single drop.
| When | What was reported | Reported by |
|---|---|---|
| Wed 11 Nov, after hours | Shares fell about 8.6% to about $159 after The Wall Street Journal reported the board was preparing to oust Huang (previous close $173.73) | NewsLooks |
| Thu 12 Nov, pre-market | Shares down more than 13% in pre-market trading | Devdiscourse |
| Thu 12 Nov, open | Opened at $151.00, down $22.73 or 13.08% from Wednesday's close of $173.73 | Finnhub market data; Decrypt |
| Thu 12 Nov, intraday | Fell as much as 14.3% at the low; the day's low was $148.80 (lowest intraday level since June 2025) and the high $167.14 | Finnhub market data |
| Thu 12 Nov, later in the day | Shares recovered part of the fall, trading around $164–$166 — down roughly 5% on the day | Finnhub market data; Decrypt |
| Thu 12 Nov, market value | Market value dropped below $4 trillion during trading; nearly $600 billion erased within the first hour | Premarket Daily |
The fall did not start on Thursday. Nearly $600 billion of market value was erased within the first hour of trading, according to Premarket Daily. At the day's low the stock was more than a third below its all-time closing high of $239.24, set on 6 October 2026. Analysts moved quickly: Citi cut its price target to $225 from $285, and Bernstein downgraded the stock to Market Perform from Outperform, cutting its target to $200 from $400. Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives put the difference in stark terms — Nvidia worth $300 a share with Huang as chief executive, and $225 without him, as reported by Al Jazeera.
What it means for Nvidia and AI
Huang was not a normal chief executive. He co-founded Nvidia in April 1993 with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, and he was the company's only chief executive for its entire 33-year history. He owns about 3.6% of Nvidia's stock, making him its largest shareholder and one of the richest people in the world. Under him, a graphics-chip company became the backbone of the artificial-intelligence industry — the supplier of the processors that train and run almost every major AI model — and one of the most valuable companies in the world, hitting a peak market value of over $5.5 trillion earlier in 2026, according to The Register.
Huang presenting the RTX 5070 laptop at his CES keynote in Las Vegas, January 2025. (Photo: Pronoia / Wikimedia Commons, CC0)
The risk for Nvidia is not the business. Demand for its chips has not changed, and the company still reports earnings on 17 November as scheduled. The risk is leadership: a company built around one founder, with about 60 direct reports and no succession plan, now has to find a permanent chief executive while running the most important earnings report of its year. The interim chief executive is a finance executive, not a technologist, and the board has never before had a chairman. Investors are pricing in that uncertainty — which is why the shares fell even though nothing about Nvidia's products changed.
The other risk is political. The controversy is about national security as much as conduct, and it is not over. Huang faces a potential congressional subpoena if he does not comply with a request for a closed-door briefing about the allegations related to the Chinese businesswoman, according to USA Today. Senator Elizabeth Warren said the resignation "does not absolve him" or the company "for putting our national security at risk or for any potential violations of our law." The board's investigation continues, and its findings have not been published.
Update: Elon Musk says hiring Huang "would be an honor"
Hours before Nvidia announced Huang's resignation, another chapter opened on X. Late on Wednesday 11 November 2026, the financial account ZeroHedge posted: "Elon please hire Jensen." Musk replied in four words: "That would be an honor."
That is all it was — four words. Musk named no company, no role, and no offer, and no negotiations have been reported. Huang has not joined Tesla, xAI, SpaceX or any Musk company. The viral claim that he "might end up building for Tesla, xAI and SpaceX" is speculation, not reporting — and the reply came before the resignation was announced, not after it.
Still, the reply matters, because of who the two men are to each other. Musk and Huang have known each other for more than a decade. On 15 October 2026 Musk wrote on X: "Old friends are the best friends. Jensen rocks." And Musk's companies are among Nvidia's biggest customers — on SpaceX's August earnings call, Musk said SpaceX would build exclusively on Nvidia because the Vera Rubin architecture is the best. Prediction markets have since put SpaceX and xAI among the leading possible destinations for Huang, though markets are bets, not facts.
Musk also agreed with posts on X arguing Nvidia's board should have waited for the results of its investigation before Huang's exit.
Since this article was first published: Nvidia shares closed Thursday at $166.19, down 4.3% — the lowest close since 30 March 2026. Huang forfeited about $108 million in unvested equity, according to Bloomberg. House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Brian Mast said Huang's team confirmed he will testify before Congress after a subpoena threat.
What's next
- Tuesday 17 November 2026: Nvidia reports third-quarter fiscal 2027 results as scheduled, at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific time, followed by an earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific time. This is Kress's first major public appearance as interim chief executive, and the numbers will be read as a test of whether the business is steady.
- Wednesday 18 November 2026: Kress is to host a company meeting, as reported by The Times.
- The board investigation: the independent directors' investigation, assisted by outside legal counsel, into whether Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence operation continues. No findings have been published.
- Congress: Huang faces a potential subpoena if he does not give a closed-door briefing about the allegations related to the Chinese businesswoman. Senator Warren has said the resignation does not absolve him or the company.
- The chief executive search: the board is considering internal and external candidates, with no timeline and no public shortlist. President Trump has suggested Tim Cook should take the job — a suggestion only, not a board decision.
Nvidia's headquarters in Santa Clara, California. (Photo: Coolcaesar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Frequently asked questions
Why did Jensen Huang resign from Nvidia?
Nvidia gave no reason in its announcement. The resignation followed reporting by The New York Times, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal of two extramarital affairs — one with a woman whom US authorities have concluded was a Chinese intelligence asset, and one with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice-president of healthcare — and a board investigation into whether Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence operation. Reuters has since reported a third allegation, an intimate relationship with a second employee, according to two sources. All of the allegations are reported, not established findings.
Who is the interim CEO of Nvidia?
Colette Kress, Nvidia's executive vice-president and chief financial officer. She has been CFO since 2013 and joined the company in September 2013. She keeps her CFO duties while serving as interim chief executive until a permanent successor is named.
Was Jensen Huang fired?
Formally, he resigned. Nvidia announced on 12 November 2026 that it had accepted his resignation, effective immediately. But The Wall Street Journal reported the day before that the board was preparing to oust him, and Reuters reported directors met late on Wednesday to decide his future — so the resignation came under clear board pressure. He also gave up his board seat.
How much did Nvidia's stock fall?
It depends on when you measure it. The shares closed at $173.73 on Wednesday 11 November, fell about 8.6% in after-hours trading, and opened on Thursday at $151.00, down 13.08%. They fell as much as 14.3% during Thursday's trading, then recovered part of the fall to trade around $164–$166 — down roughly 5% on the day. The market value dropped below $4 trillion, and at one point the stock was roughly 35% below its all-time closing high of $239.24 from 6 October 2026.
Did Jensen Huang spy for China?
No outlet has reported that. What has been reported is that US authorities concluded Alice Huang, the woman he was involved with, was a Chinese intelligence asset, and that the board is investigating whether Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence operation. The allegation concerns her, not him — and the board's investigation has not published findings.
What happens next for Nvidia?
Third-quarter fiscal 2027 results are due on Tuesday 17 November 2026 as scheduled, and interim chief executive Colette Kress is to host a company meeting on 18 November. The board is searching for a permanent chief executive, considering internal and external candidates. Huang faces a potential congressional subpoena if he does not give a closed-door briefing about the allegations, and the board's investigation continues.
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Sources
- USA Today — Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO amid affair probe (paywall)
- The Register — Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia chief executive
- The Wall Street Journal — Nvidia is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang (paywall)
- Barron's — Nvidia stock price, Huang affair, CEO ouster (paywall)
- TechSpot — Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO following allegations of two affairs
- The Times — Jensen Huang resignation: latest news and Nvidia share price
- Reuters — Former Nvidia CEO Huang had a relationship with a second employee, sources say (paywall)
- NewsLooks — Nvidia shares plunge 13% at market open after Jensen Huang resigns
- Devdiscourse — Nvidia shares plunge over 13% after Jensen Huang's resignation
- Decrypt — Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom: the AI stock winners and losers after Jensen Huang's ousting
- Premarket Daily — One resignation just wiped $600 billion off the AI trade
- Finnhub — NVDA quote data, 12 November 2026 (open $151.005, high $167.14, low $148.80, previous close $173.73)
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