Nvidia's board is preparing to oust founder and CEO Jensen Huang, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday night. The board may convene within hours to decide on his future, while already searching for a replacement. The move follows two extramarital affairs, one of them with a Chinese businesswoman suspected of spying for Beijing.
Shortly before, The New York Times reported that Huang had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president for healthcare, who reports to him. The newspaper, citing five people who worked at Nvidia, said the relationship had not been revealed until now.
Powell, 48, joined the company in 2008 and climbed the ranks gradually. She has held her current position since late 2017 and is responsible for programs to apply Nvidia's chip technology in healthcare and higher education, primarily in medical imaging devices. According to the report, the relationship between Powell and Huang, 63, had become a subject of discussion within the company. Powell did not respond to the newspaper's inquiry, and Nvidia declined to comment.
Video: Nvidia headquarters and products | Photo: Reuters
The report comes just days after Huang admitted to an intimate relationship with Alice Huang, the Chinese businesswoman, who according to US intelligence is a spy. The board opened an investigation following the admission. Asked about the relationship with the senior executive in a phone call from the newspaper, Jensen Huang replied, "I don't think you should be talking to me directly," and hung up.
In March, during Nvidia's annual developer conference in San Jose, Jensen Huang and Powell were seen "showing affection" at a nearby hotel where meetings of the company's senior executives were held, according to the report. One person present recorded them on a phone. Huang's security guards noticed him, took him aside and suggested that he sign a confidentiality agreement.
Like rules at many corporations, Nvidia's code of conduct instructs employees "to avoid situations in which our actions create a conflict," including "personal relationships." In the code, the company also states that it "investigates reports of misconduct without delay."
Huang was born in Taiwan in 1963, and at age nine his parents sent him to the US. He met his wife, Lori, while they were students at Oregon State University. The couple have two children, Spencer and Madison, both of whom hold management positions at Nvidia. Huang founded the company in 1993 and turned it into the leading supplier of AI processors and the company most identified with the AI era. Nvidia is now worth more than $4 trillion.
In recent weeks, a number of media outlets have revealed that, according to US intelligence, the Chinese intelligence service recruited Alice Huang to spy for them. Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen who served as a senior executive at the Singapore-based company Megaspeed, also conducted a romantic relationship with Nvidia's CEO, according to the reports. The company purchased advanced AI chips from Nvidia and was investigated on suspicion of smuggling them into China.
The New York Times reported that a classified memo, drafted under the oversight of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, warned the administration's top officials about the relationship between Alice Huang and Nvidia's CEO. China denies the espionage claims, and Alice Huang did not respond to inquiries. Despite the memo, President Donald Trump included Huang in his entourage during his visit to China.
The case strikes at the heart of the race between the US and China for leadership in AI. Nvidia sells advanced processors worth hundreds of billions of dollars and provides guarantees to large segments of the industry. The importance of the field goes far beyond the commercial dimension. It is seen as a central component in the superpower contest over technological, economic, security and diplomatic supremacy.
The law firm Wachtell Lipton is leading the board's investigation. At the same time, three Republican committee chairs in the House of Representatives have asked Huang to appear on November 18 for a closed-door briefing on his ties with Alice Huang and on Nvidia's security procedures against foreign espionage.
Meanwhile, the White House has said it is not intervening in the board's decision on the future of the company's CEO and founder, Jensen Huang. The White House's statement comes amid reports that the board is considering ousting Huang, searching for possible replacements and even weighing the appointment of an interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found.
Even so, senior Democrats in the US are stepping up pressure on the Trump administration, demanding documents related to its dealings with chip giant Nvidia and its ties with China.
