Jensen Huang resigns from Nvidia over affair and espionage suspicion

In depth

Nvidia announced that Huang, the company's CEO and founder, resigned following the affair revelations he had maintained outside his marriage, alongside the disclosure of a relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman suspected of espionage. Huang acknowledged the relationship and said he was not faithful to his wife. The company stated that the board has opened an investigation that will examine the claim that Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence attempt.

The US government has not yet reached a clear conclusion on whether Alice Huang engaged in espionage for China. The intelligence community is divided over the strength of the evidence that she was recruited by China's intelligence service. Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, the company Alice Huang founded bought AI chips that were smuggled into China and installed in a data center in Shanghai.

Nvidia's shares fell following the resignation, and the company's market value dropped below $4 trillion. Huang, 63, had run the company for 33 years.