Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia Shares Plunge

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Jensen Huang resigned Thursday, ending 33 years at the helm of Nvidia, the company he co-founded and built into the dominant supplier of artificial intelligence chips. Nvidia said Huang stepped down as chief executive, president and board member, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer ` took over as interim CEO.

Nvidia shares clawed back part of their steep early loss Thursday. After falling to $148.83, the stock recovered to $160.82 by 6:56 a.m. Pacific time, up about 8% from its morning low. Shares were still down 7.4% from Wednesday’s close. The sell-off also hit Nvidia-backed cloud computing provider CoreWeave.

The resignation came four days after Huang apologized in an email to employees. “I was unfaithful to my wife,” he wrote. The New York Times identified the woman as Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, and reported that U.S. intelligence officials believed she had passed information to Beijing. China denied the espionage allegation. Nvidia said it had no reason to believe company secrets or national security had been compromised. Its independent directors hired former federal prosecutor Joon H. Kim to investigate.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the FBI was investigating. Megaspeed said Thursday that it was cooperating with U.S. export-control authorities and had hired a U.S. law firm to inventory its chips and review its compliance. The company previously said it had found no evidence that it illegally shipped advanced Nvidia chips to China.

Reuters reported that Nvidia’s board met Wednesday to consider removing Huang after The New York Times reported a second alleged affair, this time involving Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reported directly to him. Nvidia gave no reason for Huang’s resignation in its Thursday announcement.

Kress, Nvidia’s finance chief since 2013, will keep that job while the board considers internal and outside candidates for a permanent CEO. The board also named former Synopsys chief executive Harvey C. Jones its first chair. Kress’s first scheduled update to investors comes Tuesday, Nov. 17, when Nvidia reports quarterly results and holds its earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific time.