Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s future in doubt as fresh allegations emerge, shares fall

The board of Nvidia is reportedly preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang after news surfaced about his affair with an alleged Chinese intelligence operative and another Nvidia executive. Reportedly, the company’s shares plunged more than 8 per cent in after-hours trading on Wednesday, November 11, after reports emerged that the board was preparing to sack Huang.

The second extramarital relationship, previously not known, was reported by The New York Times. Huang was in a relationship with Kimberly Powell, who served as Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare. Powell had joined the company in 2008. It was reported that following the recent developments, the board was preparing to meet as soon as Wednesday to ascertain Huang’s future with the company, according to The Wall Street Journal.

When it comes to Powell, according to her profile on Nvidia’s website, she is responsible for the company’s worldwide healthcare business, including hardware and software platforms for accelerated computing, AI, and visualisation that back the ecosystem of medical imaging, life sciences, drug discovery, and healthcare analytics.

A report in The New York Times said that both Huang and Powell were captured being affectionate with each other at a hotel in San Jose, California, in March this year. The second alleged affair comes days after Huang admitted to an affair with a woman suspected by the US intelligence community to be a Chinese intelligence asset. The woman named Alice Huang is believed to be a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security. Following the scandal, Nvidia’s board of directors initiated an independent investigation into the incident. The company reportedly hired law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz to probe the spying allegations.

Rumours about a relationship between Huang and Powell have reportedly circulated for years. Some of the rumours, according to reports, emerged from Powell’s lack of formal training or experience in healthcare and science. For Nvidia, healthcare accounts for a relatively small share of its business. Though the company supplies chips for medical equipment and MRI machines, these operations contribute little when compared to the revenue generated by its advanced AI systems and GPUs.

On November 8, at the centre of the allegations, Huang sent an email to Nvidia employees. In the email, a public apology, Huang admitted that he was unfaithful to his wife and that his actions hurt their children. “There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”

“Throughout my life, my family has given me love and support. They deserve my honesty and loyalty. Instead, I let them down and damaged the life we built together. I take full responsibility for what I did and the hurt I caused, and I accept the criticism that comes with it,” he wrote.

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Huang mentioned that Nvidia’s board has initiated an independent investigation into national security concerns that emerged following the scandal. The investigation will examine whether the CEO was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. The board said a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, will oversee the probe. Further, the board also said that it had no reason to believe that Nvidia’s secrets or US national security had been compromised.

“I support the investigation and will cooperate fully. I love our country and our company. I am committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America’s national security. I am proud and grateful to be an American,” Huang wrote.

Nvidia shares fell about 7 per cent during the week before declining further in the after-hours trading on Wednesday. The stock was moving towards a sixth consecutive weekly decline, triggering questions about the long-term sustainability of the massive investments in AI infrastructure.

According to regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Jensen Huang directly holds about 70.1 million Nvidia shares as of September 2026. His ownership extends considerably through family trusts and other entities. These include approximately 467.7 million shares held by the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Living Trust, along with holdings in two irrevocable trusts and six limited liability companies. Together, these holdings account for approximately 811.5 million shares, according to his SEC filing.