Nvidia board prepares possible removal of CEO Jensen Huang

By Marcus Bennett

Nvidia's board moved on the 11th to prepare a meeting that could remove Chief Executive Jensen Huang, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The board could convene as early as that day to decide Huang's future. The report described preparations for that decision, not a completed dismissal. Huang still led Nvidia, and the board continued to say that he would remain in charge while an internal investigation ran.

The sequence behind the board move

The immediate trigger for the abrupt change in mood was a second affair allegation, The New York Times reported, also citing people familiar with the matter. The Times identified Kimberly Powell as the other person in the alleged affair.

Powell serves as vice president of Nvidia's healthcare business. She joined Nvidia in 2008 and has led efforts to apply the company's chip technology to medicine.

Huang had recently acknowledged an affair with a businesswoman suspected of spying for China. Huang said he “had nothing to do with any leak of confidential information” and intended to stay as CEO. His denial addressed the leak, not the board's separate leadership review.

• Leadership: The board was weighing Huang's continued tenure.
• Investigation: The board had already opened an internal investigation.
• Conduct: The company faced one acknowledged affair and one separate allegation involving an employee.

The new allegation did not displace the original issue. Observers said a relationship with an employee violates Nvidia's code of conduct. This gives the board a workplace-policy issue, separate from the suspected China link and the confidential-information leak. The source did not connect Powell's alleged relationship to the leak.

The hotel record

In March last year, people saw Huang and Powell together affectionately at a hotel near the venue of Nvidia's annual GTC conference. A witness recorded video of the scene. Security guards then pressed that person to sign a nondisclosure agreement, according to the Times report.

The source did not provide a response from Powell. The video documented the reported scene, but the source did not say that it proved an affair or connected the hotel scene to the suspected leak. The Times described the relationship as alleged rather than established.

What does this change for Nvidia?

For Nvidia, the change is procedural as well as personal. The board has moved from stating that Huang would remain in charge to preparing a meeting about whether he stays. That is the concrete effect of the new allegation: it brought a second conduct issue into a live decision over the chief executive's tenure. The report disclosed no final decision. It described neither a dismissal nor a finding of wrongdoing.

The reporting leaves several gaps. It provides no final board vote, no stated rationale for a possible removal beyond the conduct issues, and no findings from the internal investigation. The report did not name the businesswoman or give further detail about the suspected leak. It also identified no connection between Powell and the China case. The report named no successor and set no timeline beyond a possible meeting on the 11th.

The supported conclusion is narrow but material: Nvidia's board was preparing to decide Huang's future after an internal investigation, one acknowledged affair and a second alleged affair. The evidence cited does not show that Huang had been removed, nor does it establish that he leaked confidential information. The immediate watchpoint is any board decision and accompanying disclosure about the investigation and leadership.