Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned after 33 years leading the company, following revelations of an affair with a woman US officials believe to be a Chinese spy and a reported second affair with an Nvidia executive.
Jensen Huang has stepped down as CEO of Nvidia, ending his 33-year tenure leading the company he co-founded in 1993, according to The Guardian. The resignation follows revelations that Huang had an extramarital affair with a woman US officials believe to be a Chinese spy, and a New York Times report of a second affair with the company’s vice-president of healthcare.
The Guardian reports that Huang, an electrical engineer by education, stewarded Nvidia from a $1bn firm when it went public in 1999 to a company valued at more than $4tn in 2026. The outlet says that in a matter of days, after it was revealed he had an extramarital affair with a woman that US officials believe to be a Chinese spy, Huang managed to wipe more than $600bn from the company’s valuation.
The woman in question is Alice Huang, a top executive at a datacenter company called Megaspeed. China has denied the accusations that it had tapped Alice Huang to be an intelligence asset, and called them a “smear.” US officials had reportedly started to monitor the Megaspeed executive after suspecting the firm was diverting powerful Nvidia AI chips to Chinese firms, in potential violation of export restrictions.
On 8 November 2026, Huang admitted to having an affair in a letter to employees, apologizing to his family and reaffirming his commitment to the company. The Nvidia board said it was investigating the relationship but had no reason to believe national security secrets or company secrets were divulged. “The board has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team and will provide further updates as appropriate,” members of the Board said in a statement.
On 10 November 2026, a shareholder in California filed a lawsuit against Nvidia and its CEO. Retail investor Mark Kistenmacher filed a lawsuit accusing the company of misleading investors over Huang’s affair, claiming that Nvidia did not disclose the situation and raised national security concerns that could threaten the company’s business prospects.
On 11 November 2026, The New York Times reported there was a second affair, and the Nvidia board reportedly prepared to oust Huang. The New York Times reported that Huang also allegedly had an affair with the company’s vice-president of healthcare. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Nvidia board was preparing to oust the CEO.
On 12 November 2026, Huang stepped down. The board started a search for the company’s next CEO while the company’s chief finance officer, Colette Kress, serves as interim CEO. Meanwhile, shares in the company continue to plummet.
TechCrunch reports that Nvidia has been a prolific investor, pouring tens of billions into startups annually and participating in 105 rounds this year alone, often as the largest investor, according to PitchBook. Nvidia’s biggest bets were backing neoclouds, inference providers, and open weight models.
The outlet notes that Nvidia backed CoreWeave when it was still private and participated in two of Crusoe’s rounds, including its $1.4 billion Series E. It holds investments in Mistral AI, Lambda, and Black Forest Labs. Nvidia was often the largest investor in the deals. Last year, it wrote an $800 million check into a $2 billion Series B round for Reflection AI, before the open source startup began to earn meaningful revenue, according to the Wall Street Journal.
TechCrunch reports that Nvidia’s participation gave other investors comfort in backing these companies at lofty valuations. Under Huang, infrastructure companies that needed $100 million to $500 million in GPUs would often raise half of that amount at valuations of $1 billion or more from Nvidia just to get started, one VC said.
Now Nvidia is expected to be more selective in the new companies it backs, while writing smaller-sized checks into its existing portfolio, contributing to a drop in valuations. “When Nvidia was on the cap table, everyone felt safe,” Umesh Padval, managing partner at Seligman Ventures, said. Without that backing, investors say traditional VCs are likely to think twice before writing checks into these startups and may even pause certain dealmaking.
Huang’s departure leaves the startup ecosystem without one of its biggest champions and with far less capital for now, investors say, which could have a massive impact on dealmaking, valuations, funding, and even competition. Some investors hope that large cloud companies and other chipmakers will step in to back startups and fill some of the void that will likely be left by Huang.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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Jensen Huang has stepped down as Nvidia CEO following reports of an alleged affair with a woman suspected of spying for China, and has agreed to testify before Congress by Thanksgiving.
