Nvidia board weighs ousting Jensen Huang over two affairs

Nvidia's board is preparing a possible dismissal of chief executive Jensen Huang, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The trigger: two extramarital affairs, one of them with a suspected Chinese spy. The New York Times is reporting the same story.

The board planned to meet on Wednesday, local time, to decide Huang's future, according to both papers, which cited people familiar with the matter. Nvidia did not respond to an initial request for comment on Wednesday.

What do the two affairs involve?

The first affair, with a woman suspected of working for Chinese intelligence, became public days earlier. At that stage, Nvidia said Huang would continue to lead the company without interruption.

The picture changed on Wednesday. The New York Times reported a second relationship, this one with a subordinate Nvidia executive. The paper named Kimberly Powell, the vice president responsible for the company's health business, citing five employees.

That second disclosure moved the board from backing Huang to weighing his removal.

Why is this politically explosive?

Nvidia dominates the market for the specialized chips needed to train artificial intelligence models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. That puts the company at the center of the technology rivalry between the United States and China.

US authorities are examining whether the affair with the Chinese woman gave Beijing access to advanced AI chips whose export to China is banned. Since 2022, the United States has used export controls to restrict China's access to these technologies and slow the country's technological and military rise.

Huang also has a direct line to US President Donald Trump.

The board is currently investigating whether Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence operation.

What does this change for investors?

The numbers are already large. Nvidia's stock fell roughly eight percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday. Since the affair with the Chinese woman became known, the listed company has lost more than $300 billion in market value.

The company was most recently valued at around four trillion dollars on the stock market. A departure of Huang would leave a leadership vacuum at the top of one of the world's most valuable companies.

Who is Jensen Huang?

Huang grew up in the United States and usually appears in a black leather jacket. In his birthplace, Taiwan, he is celebrated like a pop star. Much is known about the flashy tech boss. Little is known about the woman who now threatens his position — reportedly an agent of the Chinese intelligence services who spied on him.