Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO amid affair and China spy probe; Colette Kress named interim

Resignation and interim leadership

Jensen Huang stepped down as chief executive of Nvidia on Thursday, 12 November 2026, with immediate effect, after 33 years leading the company he co-founded in 1993. The board named Colette Kress, the chief financial officer, as interim CEO while it weighs internal and external candidates for the permanent role. Kress has earlier held senior positions at Cisco and Microsoft and has taken part in Nvidia's financial results presentations alongside Huang. Huang, 63 and married, had faced growing pressure to leave after reports about his personal life and possible links to foreign espionage. The Wall Street Journal had reported that the board was preparing to remove him before he resigned.

The espionage allegations

The scandal began with reports linking Huang to Alice Huang, a businesswoman whom US intelligence officials suspect of acting as an agent or collaborator of China's Ministry of State Security. Alice Huang has no family relationship with Huang, and the allegations have not been publicly proven. She is linked to MegaSpeed, a company registered in Singapore that operates data centres in Southeast Asia and reportedly bought Nvidia chips worth more than four billion dollars. Officials reportedly believe she facilitated chip deliveries to Chinese companies in breach of US export restrictions. China's foreign ministry dismissed the espionage claims as unfounded speculation and an attempt to smear and defame China. On Monday, 9 November, Trump described Alice Huang as a spy and said Huang had told him he had no idea she was one.

Further relationships and the company's response

On 8 November Huang acknowledged in a statement that he had had an extramarital affair, without naming the woman. After the first reports emerged, he told employees he had cheated on his wife, Lori Huang, to whom he has been married for 40 years, and apologised for the pain caused. Reports then named Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president for its health division, as another affair. Powell is 48 and married, and she oversees programmes that could apply Nvidia chip technology in healthcare. Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter, also reported a relationship with an unnamed female employee, whom the agency did not name and could not reach. Nvidia declined to comment, and neither Huang, Powell nor a board representative answered Reuters. The board opened an internal investigation with outside lawyers from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to determine whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation.

Political reaction in Washington

The Senate Banking Committee invited Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify about the revelations. Committee chair Tim Scott wrote on social media that the reports raise serious concerns about national security and the protection of sensitive US technologies, adding that the American people deserve answers. A Republican representative told Bloomberg that Huang is expected to testify under oath before Thanksgiving, at the end of this month, likely behind closed doors. Asked whether Huang should have resigned, Trump said the central question was whether the woman had been a spy, which he said had not yet been established. Trump also said he had spoken with Huang the previous day and that Huang was going through a very hard time. On social media, Trump suggested that Tim Cook, 66, who led Apple from 2011 until early 2026 and remains its executive chairman, should lead Nvidia.

Market and industry impact

Nvidia shares fell sharply on Thursday, though sources differ on the size of the drop. One report put the early fall at 10%, another said the stock lost 13% at one point before partly recovering, and Mediafax reported a 5.5% decline at the close. The decline from the early October peak exceeds 30%, and the company has lost hundreds of billions of dollars in market value. Huang had steered Nvidia into a central role in artificial intelligence by arranging complex financing that helps customers buy its chips, including backing cloud providers and AI laboratories. On the evening of Wednesday, 11 November, Elon Musk replied on X to a post urging him to hire Huang, writing that it would be an honor.