Nvidia Board Weighs Ousting Jensen Huang as Affairs Cost Billions

Nvidia has lost roughly $1.8 trillion in market value since early October, and its board is now deliberating whether to remove founder and CEO Jensen Huang over two extramarital affairs — one reportedly with a suspected Chinese spy. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported the board discussions, citing informed sources. Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment on the meeting.

The market cap has fallen from just under $6 trillion to about $4.2 trillion. Even after that slide, Nvidia remains one of the world's most valuable companies.

What do the reports say about the affairs?

According to the NYT, Huang had a second affair — with a female manager reporting directly to him. The paper cites five company employees for that account. The first affair, involving a suspected Chinese spy, had already put the chip giant under pressure.

Huang acknowledged in a Sunday message to staff that he had been unfaithful to his wife and took "full responsibility," but gave no details about the relationship.

Who could replace Huang?

The name in circulation is Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer for more than a decade. Armina Rosenberg, portfolio manager and co-founder of Nvidia investor Minotaur Capital, called Kress "the natural choice" as transitional chief. The bigger question, she said, is who steers Nvidia's technological direction long-term.

Replacing Huang won't be simple. He has run the company since founding it more than 30 years ago and is seen as the driving force behind its rise. Around 60 managers report directly to him — an unusually flat structure that keeps him deep in day-to-day operations and makes him harder to swap out than most large-cap CEOs.

The board's deliberations mark a sharp reversal. Just over the weekend, it had expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team. Under Nvidia's statutes, directors can remove the CEO "with or without cause" by majority vote.

What is the market doing?

The slide hasn't stopped. Shortly after midnight, the stock dropped as much as nine percent to $158 — its lowest level since mid-2025. The rout began from a record high of just over $240 in early October, a decline of nearly 30 percent.

The turbulence lands days before Nvidia's quarterly earnings on November 17, when the company is set to brief investors on its financials and outlook. "The market is starting to price Nvidia without its founder as the likely outcome, not as an extreme tail risk," Rosenberg said. Losing him "would be a real blow."

Investors and analysts said a short-term drop in demand for Nvidia chips is unlikely. The broader ecosystem the company supports could suffer, though — mostly customers building data centers around its chips.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, for his part, wrote on X that hiring Jensen Huang "would be an honor."

Why is Washington involved?

The board has opened an internal investigation and hired outside counsel. But the affair with a suspected Chinese spy has also rattled US politics. Huang faces a potential congressional subpoena if he ignores a request for a closed-door briefing on the allegations.

Leading Senate Democrats are also targeting Trump administration records on Nvidia's chip exports to China. Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons have urged the administration to preserve all documents tied to those exports and to the Huang affair, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

"This incident raises significant concerns about the federal government's ability to effectively enforce our export controls and protect our national security," the senators wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and White House chief of staff Stephen Miller. "Questions also remain about whether prudent counterintelligence safeguards were implemented or national security recommendations were disregarded."

What does this mean for the AI race?

The chip sector is a hyper-sensitive arena for Washington and Beijing, with both states racing to build advanced AI systems that could have military uses. The US has restricted high-tech exports to China to slow the country's technological and military ascent.

Nvidia sits at the center of that contest. Its chips are essential for training new AI models, which is exactly why the Huang affair — and any lapse around export controls — cuts into national security territory, not just corporate governance.