Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns after multiple affair reports; CFO Colette Kress interim chief

Nvidia loses its founder-CEO

Nvidia announced on November 12 that Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive and left the company's board, ending his decades-long run leading the dominant supplier of AI chips. According to The Verge, the departure followed disclosures of two extramarital relationships: one with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy, and one with a person who reported to him directly. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress has stepped in as interim CEO, and TechCrunch reports that no permanent successor has been named.

How the reporting escalated

The unraveling happened remarkably fast. As The Verge recounts, The New York Times reported only on Friday that Huang and the suspected spy were “close.” Further details emerged over the following days, Nvidia announced the resignation on the morning of November 12, and hours later Reuters reported that Huang had also been in an intimate relationship with another Nvidia employee. TechCrunch, citing the same Reuters reporting, describes that as a third relationship and names the two others: one with Alice Huang, described as an accused spy, and one with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care. Reuters is withholding the third employee's identity, saying only that she works at the company.

A congressional summons

Beyond the personal-conduct story, Washington is now involved. According to TechCrunch, Huang has been called before Congress to testify in the coming weeks about the national-security implications of his relationship with Alice Huang. How much more will surface before those hearings remains unclear.

Tech leaders call the exit premature

Reactions collected by The Verge skewed heavily sympathetic, with much of the industry arguing the board acted too quickly. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Tim Cook of Apple should replace Huang, declaring that “a Legend replaces a Legend.” Elon Musk said it would “be an honor” to hire Huang and endorsed the view that founders like Steve Jobs or Travis Kalanick are not simply replaceable. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called it a sad day for Nvidia, developers, America “and all humanity,” crediting Huang with sustained innovation rather than extraction. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey framed it geopolitically: “China wants Jensen out, so I want him in.” 37signals' David Heinemeier Hansson called the resignation “a waste” and argued for proportionality, saying the indiscretions were a matter for Huang, his wife and a board reprimand. OpenAI's Peter Steinberger suggested that if the alleged spy's goal was to destabilize a top American company, that goal has now been met — a sentiment Sweeney endorsed. Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue, whose company Nvidia recently acquired for nearly $13 billion according to The Verge, called it a really sad day while pledging to push open-source AI “harder than ever.” Podcast host Lex Fridman said he was “in shock” and stood with Huang, and All-In host Jason Calacanis argued that shareholders, not the press, should decide Huang's fate once an investigation concludes. Others were more measured: Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas thanked Huang for “33 years of bold leadership,” and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said simply that letting Huang resign was a mistake.

What happens next

For now, Kress leads the company on an interim basis with no permanent successor announced, per TechCrunch, while Huang faces congressional questioning and the possibility of further disclosures in the weeks ahead.

Why it matters

Nvidia supplies the hardware underneath most of the AI industry, and the abrupt exit of the founder who built that position creates leadership uncertainty at a moment of soaring demand for AI hardware. The espionage allegation also converts a private-conduct scandal into a national-security question, and Congress will now examine how exposed one of America's most strategically important companies may have been. The loud defense of Huang by much of the tech establishment, meanwhile, previews an uncomfortable debate about founder accountability: whether boards should weigh personal behavior against a track record of building, and where the line sits when a relationship with a direct report and a foreign-intelligence allegation are both involved.