The unfolding Jensen Huang scandal: a timeline
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has admitted an affair while U.S. officials probe a separate relationship they believe involves a Chinese spy — and his board is reportedly weighing his exit.
Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang, 63, has acknowledged cheating on his wife of 40 years in a scandal that has expanded from his personal life into questions about corporate governance and national security. The company he has led for decades now faces a board reportedly preparing to discuss his future, while its shares slide in after-hours trading.
On Wednesday, the Times reported, citing five former Nvidia employees, that Huang also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company's vice president of health care, who reports directly to him. Nvidia, Huang and Powell have not confirmed the report. When a Times reporter reached Huang, he reportedly said, "I don't think you should be talking to me directly," and hung up.
Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's board is preparing to oust Huang and that it plans to meet to discuss his future at the company. Nvidia's stock fell roughly 8% in after-hours trading on Wednesday and is down 11% over the past five days. The transition question is unusually acute: Huang has said he delegates very little and keeps about 60 direct reports, and Nvidia has no obvious successor or formal succession plan.
The stakes reach beyond one company. The U.S. and China are competing to build the most advanced AI infrastructure, a contest with implications for economic output, military capability and innovation capacity. Nvidia, among the world's largest makers of the AI chips that accelerate that development, operates under U.S. government restrictions on selling its most powerful chips to Chinese entities — restrictions that make allegations of chip diversion to China through intermediaries like Megaspeed especially sensitive.
What to watch: whether Nvidia's board takes formal action on Huang's tenure and how the company would reorganize a leadership structure built around his unusually wide span of control; how far the Justice Department's Megaspeed probe reaches into Nvidia's own sales practices; and whether Powell's reported reporting line to Huang prompts any internal review of the company's governance controls.
Key facts
- • Megaspeed reportedly bought $4.8 billion in Nvidia chips over two years.
- • Justice Department has taken over the federal Megaspeed investigation.
- • Nvidia shares fell about 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday.
- • Huang says he keeps roughly 60 direct reports.
- • WSJ reports Nvidia's board is preparing to oust Huang.
Why it matters
Builders and operators should expect Nvidia's leadership transition to become a live risk: a company with ~60 direct reports into one CEO and no named successor has little margin for a sudden change. The Megaspeed probe also signals tighter U.S. scrutiny of AI-chip supply chains through Singapore and other intermediaries, which could reshape how infrastructure firms source GPUs.
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