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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns amid spy scandal

· Fact-checked before it aired. Unconfirmed claims from this segment are not shown.

Jensen Huang, 63, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia — the company at the center of the global AI boom — resigned effective immediately on November 12, 2026. CFO Colette Kress was named interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor. The board also created a new chairman role, appointing Harvey C. Jones, former CEO of Synopsys. Nvidia shares plunged more than 10-11% on the news.

Huang's downfall began with reports he had an affair with Alice Huang, a businesswoman at Singapore-based Megaspeed who is alleged to be an asset of China's Ministry of State Security. Megaspeed is under U.S. criminal investigation for allegedly smuggling American-made chips into China. Secretary of State Marco Rubio circulated a memo this spring saying U.S. intelligence showed Huang was in a romantic relationship with the suspected spy. The scandal deepened when The New York Times reported a second affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's VP of healthcare, who reported directly to Huang — a viol

Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's CEO on November 12, 2026, effective immediately. CFO Colette Kress was named interim CEO, and Harvey C. Jones became the company's first-ever board chair.

Huang resigned after reports of a second extramarital affair — with Nvidia healthcare VP Kimberly Powell, who reported to him — deepened the scandal that began with his admitted affair with Alice Huang, a businesswoman suspected of being a Chinese intelligence asset.

Huang resigned amid an investigation into his relationship with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive alleged to be a Chinese spy. Nvidia's board had hired a former acting U.S. attorney to investigate whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation.

Huang resigned over two extramarital affairs — one with Alice Huang (suspected Chinese spy) and one with Nvidia executive Kimberly Powell. The board is investigating whether he fell victim to a foreign intelligence plot.

Huang resigned after his affair raised national security conc

Fact-check

VERIFIED TRUE

Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's CEO on November 12, 2026, effective immediately. CFO Colette Kress was named interim CEO, and Harvey C. Jones became the company's first-ever board chair.

Jensen Huang has resigned as CEO of Nvidia 🔗 https://t.co/6n3y7kEKxt https://t.co/GOR47KB91w

Original post · The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ)

Nvidia press release / AP NAMES: NVDA = Nvidia's stock ticker; Jensen Huang = co-founder and now-former CEO of Nvidia; Colette Kress = Nvidia CFO named interim

VERIFIED TRUE

Huang resigned after reports of a second extramarital affair — with Nvidia healthcare VP Kimberly Powell, who reported to him — deepened the scandal that began with his admitted affair with Alice Huang, a businesswoman suspected of being a Chinese intelligence asset.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns after reports of second affair deepened scandal - follow live https://t.co/WRty174acj

Original post · BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking)

NBC News / The Verge

VERIFIED TRUE

Huang resigned amid an investigation into his relationship with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive alleged to be a Chinese spy. Nvidia's board had hired a former acting U.S. attorney to investigate whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation.

BREAKING: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns amid investigation into relationship with alleged Chinese spy

Original post · Fox News (@FoxNews)

NBC News / AP

VERIFIED TRUE

Huang resigned over two extramarital affairs — one with Alice Huang (suspected Chinese spy) and one with Nvidia executive Kimberly Powell. The board is investigating whether he fell victim to a foreign intelligence plot.

BREAKING: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns over controversy surrounding two extramarital affairs, including one involving a woman suspected of spying for China. The departure comes as Nvidia investigates whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. https://t.co/

Original post · Fox News (@FoxNews)

NBC News / Washington Post

VERIFIED TRUE

Huang resigned after his affair raised national security concerns; Colette Kress is interim CEO. Nvidia shares plunged roughly 10-11% in premarket trading Thursday.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns after his affair raised national security concerns. The company named Colette Kress as interim CEO. Shares of Nvidia, one of the largest companies in the world, plunged 10% in premarket trading Thursday. https://t.co/0z66yR7ZPZ https://t.co/Lu0UIb0

Original post · The Associated Press (@AP)

AP / NBC News

VERIFIED TRUE

Huang resigned after reports of multiple extramarital affairs, including one with a suspected Chinese spy. The board met Wednesday night and announced the resignation Thursday morning. This is vague hype with no specific factual claim to verify.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns after mounting controversy over reports of extramarital affairs, including one with a suspected Chinese spy https://t.co/pF81KuSd6R https://t.co/YzurH4G7qE

Original post · @CNN

CNN / NBC News POST 2119510631716155879: NOCLAIM N/A

Sources

What the hosts said

BGood morning, I'm Bella. This is Morning Briefing. The biggest story in tech just detonated overnight: Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia.
BAnd I'm Brian. Not a retirement, not a planned transition. He resigned, effective immediately, after a scandal that goes way beyond the boardroom.
BThe Associated Press confirms it. Nvidia's board met Wednesday night, and by Thursday morning, Huang was gone. CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO.
BAnd here's the part that makes this a national security story, not just a corporate one. The affair that started all this was with a woman named Alice Huang — no relation — who the U.S. government suspects of being a Chinese intelligence asset.
BLet's be careful here. She's alleged to be an asset. She hasn't been charged. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio circulated a memo this spring saying U.S. intelligence showed the relationship was real.
BAnd she worked at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that's already under U.S. criminal investigation for allegedly smuggling American-made chips into China. So the CEO of the most important AI company on earth is romantically involved with someone tied to a chip-smuggling probe.
BThat alone would be a crisis. But then The New York Times reported a second affair — with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's VP of healthcare, who reported directly to Huang.
BWhich is a violation of the company's own code of conduct. You can't have a relationship with someone who reports to you. That's not a gray area.
BSo the board had two problems: a potential foreign intelligence operation targeting their CEO, and a clear governance failure. They acted fast.
BAnd the market is reacting. Nvidia shares plunged more than ten percent in premarket trading. This is one of the largest companies in the world, and it just lost its founder.
BThe Washington Post called it 'a stunning downfall for one of the most celebrated executives in the world.' That's not hyperbole. Huang built Nvidia from a graphics chip company into the engine of the AI boom.
BAnd here's what I keep thinking about. This isn't just about one man's personal failings. If the allegations are true, a foreign intelligence service may have targeted the CEO of America's most strategically important tech company.
BThat's why the board hired a former acting U.S. attorney to investigate whether Huang was targeted. This is counterintelligence territory now.
BChina's government, for its part, denies everything. They call the allegations 'purely unsubstantiated and directed at smearing China.'
BOf course they do. But the timing is brutal. Nvidia is at the center of the U.S.-China chip war. The company's most advanced chips are restricted from export to China.
BAnd now the guy who built the company is out because of a relationship with someone accused of helping China get those chips. You can't make this up.
BLet's talk about what happens next. Colette Kress is a steady hand — she's been CFO for years, she knows the business cold. But she's not Jensen Huang.
BNo one is. Huang was the visionary. He didn't just run Nvidia; he defined what the company would become. The board also created a new chairman role, appointing Harvey C. Jones, former CEO of Synopsys.
BThat's a major governance overhaul. For decades, Huang was both CEO and the dominant voice on the board. Now they're separating those roles.
BWhich is probably the right move, but it's a huge cultural shift for a company that was basically built in his image.
BAnd the stock drop tells you how much investors trusted him. Ten percent in premarket — that's tens of billions of dollars in value, gone in hours.
BHere's my take: the board did the right thing, and they did it fast. You cannot have a CEO with this kind of exposure. But the damage is done. The question now is whether Nvidia can keep its edge without the guy who built it.
BI think that's the real story. The AI race doesn't pause for a scandal. Nvidia's competitors — AMD, Intel, the Chinese chipmakers — they're all watching this and smiling.
BOh, come on. Nvidia's moat is so deep right now. Their software ecosystem, their CUDA platform — that doesn't disappear because the CEO resigned.
BBut leadership matters. When Steve Jobs died, Apple didn't collapse, but it took years to prove it could innovate without him. Nvidia is in the same position now.
BThat's a fair comparison. But Apple had Tim Cook ready. Nvidia has an interim CEO and a board that just got blindsided. This is messier.
BAnd the national security angle makes it messier still. If a foreign intelligence service really did target Huang, that's a failure of U.S. counterintelligence too.
BThat's exactly my point! How does the CEO of Nvidia not get flagged? This guy has been meeting with world leaders, he's on the cover of every magazine. And nobody thought to check who he was dating?
BTo be fair, the U.S. government did flag it. Rubio's memo was this spring. The question is what happened after that.
BWhat happened is the board waited until the second affair became public. They didn't act on the spy allegation alone. That's a problem.
BYou're assuming they knew everything. The board may have been investigating quietly. We don't know the full timeline.
BI'm not assuming anything. I'm saying the optics are terrible. The most important tech company in America lost its CEO because of a sex scandal with a suspected spy. That's a failure somewhere.
BFair enough. Let's move on. There's other news this morning, and some of it is... well, let's just say the internet is doing what the internet does.
BSpeaking of which, there's a lot of noise on X right now about Saudi Arabia being under attack. Some accounts are posting 'breaking news' with fire emojis and no sources.
BLet's be clear: we could not confirm any of that. Al Jazeera reported fighting intensifying in Yemen, with Houthis denying they targeted Mecca. But no major outlet confirms Saudi Arabia is under direct attack.
BAnd there's a claim that Aramco lost twenty billion dollars in half an hour on the stock market. Also unconfirmed. No major financial outlet is reporting that.
BThis is a good reminder: when you see 'breaking news' with a lot of emojis and no named sources, slow down. Check the actual outlets.
BThere's also a claim that Tehran's air defenses are engaging unidentified objects. Again, no major outlet confirms it. The rumor mill is working overtime this morning.
BAnd that's the thing about a story like the Nvidia one — it's real, it's confirmed, it's huge. But it also creates a vacuum where every rumor looks plausible.
BRight. When the big story is this wild, people start believing anything. That's why we check.
BOne more note on the Nvidia story before we go. The company named Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever board chair. That's a big deal — it means the board is asserting control in a way it never did under Huang.
BAnd Colette Kress, the interim CEO, is a finance person, not a chip designer. That tells you the board's priority right now is stability, not vision.
BWhich is probably smart. But the long-term question remains: who leads Nvidia into the next decade? The AI race isn't waiting.
BThat's the story we'll be following for months. For now, that's the Morning Briefing. I'm Brian.
BAnd I'm Bella. We'll be back with more as this develops.

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