Colette Kress named interim chief as lawmakers demand Huang testimony
Jensen Huang abruptly quit as chief executive of Nvidia after revelations of alleged extramarital affairs. US lawmakers in Washington have demanded that Huang answer questions over whether one of his alleged relationships was with a Chinese spy. He admitted on Sunday to having been “unfaithful” to his wife after reports he had an extramarital affair with a suspected Chinese spy, Alice Huang. On Wednesday, he was reported to have had a second relationship, this time with an Nvidia executive.
Nvidia named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim chief executive on Thursday and is now hunting for a permanent replacement. Kress called an emergency meeting of her executive team to discuss the company’s future.
The second alleged relationship was with a long-time Nvidia executive, Kimberly Powell, who reported directly to Huang within the company, according to US media. Sources told the BBC that Nvidia employees had noticed the pair were unusually close.
Alice Huang, who is no relation to Jensen Huang, worked as an executive at the Singaporean firm Megaspeed. She has been suspected of being an intelligence asset for China, according to the New York Times. China has rejected those allegations as a smear. US Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Thursday the Department of Justice had not yet drawn any conclusions about whether Alice Huang was engaged in espionage for Beijing.
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons, along with other Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, publicly demanded that Huang brief Congress on his alleged affair. If he refuses to appear voluntarily before any committee that calls him, he could be subpoenaed, one Senate staff member told the BBC.
Huang’s alleged conduct not only potentially crossed professional boundaries, but has made Nvidia the target of questions from US politicians who have expressed concern about national security risks. Nvidia had announced it launched an investigation into whether its CEO had been “the target of a foreign intelligence effort”. The company has said it has “no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised”, but pledged that its independent inquiry would look at all available information.
Representatives of Nvidia repeatedly declined to comment since Wednesday. A personal representative of Huang also declined to comment on Thursday.
Nvidia lost $550bn in stock market value in five days as the scandal dominated headlines, the most significant five-day drop the company has seen since going public 27 years ago. Its market value rose by more than 470% in the past five years, with the stock peaking just a few weeks ago; it is now down 31% against a backdrop of wider uncertainty in the tech sector.
Because of Nvidia’s size, the drop reaches ordinary savers. Nvidia’s value makes up about 7% of the S&P 500 index, which closed at 7,619.38 on November 12, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data from the St. Louis Fed. That index is offered as a popular index fund in 401(k) retirement accounts, whose balances rise and fall with changes in the stock market.
Nvidia’s rise has been built on chips that were initially designed for computer gaming. As AI technology evolved over the last four years into chatbots and large language models, companies building AI tools suddenly required huge numbers of the Nvidia computer chips that could process large amounts of data.
Inside Nvidia, reactions shifted as the revelations accumulated. One current Nvidia staff member told the BBC that the initial reports of Huang’s infidelity were more or less brushed off by rank-and-file workers. It was not until the alleged affair with the Nvidia executive became public that workers started to feel “this is crazy”, the person said. Another Nvidia employee said they had been told not to speak with the press or otherwise comment on the situation in public.
Many Nvidia staff have earned millions of dollars in compensation through cashing out their shares as the stock soared.
Huang had been widely expected to weather the scandal after the first affair became public. His downfall has been a major topic of conversation in Bay Area circles, several tech insiders told the BBC. “Obviously, his behaviour has compounded over time,” one long-time tech industry executive said, noting that other executives had experienced public issues of infidelity that could have been avoided, adding that the overall feeling among people discussing Huang’s affairs was that “stuff will keep coming out.”
Bill Gates of Microsoft and Jeff Bezos of Amazon had affairs exposed in the last decade. Both men are now divorced from their wives.
Huang has been married to Lori Huang for 40 years. Both of their children are also executives at Nvidia.