Jensen Huang quits as Nvidia CEO amid alleged China spy scandal

Huang steps down amid espionage reports

Nvidia announced on 12 November 2026 that Jensen Huang, 63, had stepped down as chief executive, ending a tenure in which he turned the company into the leading supplier of advanced AI chips. Colette Kress, the chief financial officer and executive vice president, took over as interim CEO, and Harvey Jones became the first chairman in the board's history. The departure followed reports that Huang had an extramarital relationship with a woman suspected of being recruited by Chinese intelligence, along with a second affair with an employee. Nvidia had been the world's most valuable company until recently, and the search for a permanent successor has drawn wide attention.

Trump's role under scrutiny

The New York Times reported that Trump phoned Huang on Tuesday, 10 November, and urged him to keep fighting for his post, citing two people briefed on the call. According to the same report, Trump had been warned repeatedly about national security risks and chose to disregard those warnings, viewing Huang as irreplaceable for US technological and economic strength. CNN's Phil Mattingly compared publicly known conversations between the two men with later decisions by the Trump administration, tracing a path from a private meeting to policies affecting Nvidia's products and business. Trump later suggested Tim Cook, Apple's former chief executive and now 66, as the successor on social media. Elon Musk said it would be an honour to hire Huang at his own technology companies.

Export controls and the congressional probe

The Biden administration had sharply limited exports of high-performance chips to China, while Huang had pushed to sell as many chips abroad as possible, including into China. Gautam Mukunda of the Yale School of Management told Bloomberg that Nvidia had used its influence over the Trump government, including a $25 million donation to Trump's ballroom, to push officials into looking away from export-control enforcement. In reports cited by in.gr, Nvidia's chief legal counsel allegedly tried to intervene in a Commerce Department inquiry into MegaSpeed, a Singapore-based company led by the woman linked to the espionage claims. Lawmakers have called for testimony before Congress from Huang and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Market reaction on Wall Street and in Europe

Nvidia shares fell 5.44% on 12 November, pushing the company's market value below $4 trillion, and in.gr reports that it lost $550 billion in value over five days. The Nasdaq slipped 0.39% to 25,366.09, the Dow Jones fell 0.36% to 52,297.09, and the S&P 500 lost 0.35% to 7,592.40. Nvidia touched a 52-week low during the session, and selling pressure eased before the close, although one report said the stock had at one point shown a double-digit decline after the announcement. AMD and Broadcom each gained more than 5%, and large cloud infrastructure providers including Alphabet rose almost 2%. European stocks moved the other way, with the STOXX 600 reaching a record high on 12 November and about 2.6% higher so far in November, while Japan's Nikkei fell just over 3%.

Nvidia-5.44%

Nasdaq-0.39%

Dow Jones-0.36%

S&P 500-0.35%

Nvidia

-5.44 %

Nasdaq

-0.39 %

Dow Jones

-0.36 %

S&P 500

-0.35 %

Data from the article text

Who gains from Nvidia's troubles

Mark Franklin of Manulife Investment Management said investors were shifting money toward other chip designers, and that the shift could allow rivals to close the gap with Nvidia. Farzin Azam of Mizuho Americas told CNBC that TSMC, Broadcom and AMD would benefit because they do not carry the burden of leadership turmoil. Over the same stretch in which Nvidia shares dropped 11%, AMD and Broadcom gained 30% and 24%, while TSMC, which manufactures Nvidia's most advanced processors, rose 11%. Alberto Concha, chief investment officer at the Swiss wealth manager LFG+Zest, said the market was broadening and that Europe, being more defensive, could keep performing well.