BREAKING NEWS. What many saw coming has happened: Jensen Huang resigned on Thursday, November 12, as president, chief executive officer (CEO) and board member of Nvidia, effective immediately, amid two personal scandals. Colette Kress, the chief financial officer, takes over as interim CEO. What does it mean for the company, the market and your savings? Let’s break it down.
The statement was released at 8:48 a.m. ET via GlobeNewswire. The board thanks Huang for his contributions, but it does not quote him, does not mention the scandals and gives no reason for the resignation, according to the text itself and CNBC. Outlets such as AP, The Guardian and NBC News report that he resigned amid those scandals. AP adds that Huang was facing growing calls to step down.
According to NBC News, the board met Wednesday night to decide his future, and the White House was aware of the meeting, according to a source cited by that network.
There’s another development: Harvey C. Jones, former CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys, was named the first chairman of the board in Nvidia’s history. NBC News describes it as a major corporate governance overhaul at a company that for decades depended on Huang alone. Jones said: “The board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.”
To understand how things got here, we have to go back to Sunday, November 8. That day Huang admitted to a relationship with another woman in a message to his employees: “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” according to CNBC. He has been married to Lori Huang since 1985, and the couple’s two children work at Nvidia, according to Wired.
Three days later came the second blow. According to The New York Times, citing five people who worked at the company, Huang, 63, allegedly had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, 48, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare, who reports directly to him. Both are married to other people. Two of those sources said they were recorded on video “showing affection” at a hotel in San Jose, California, during a conference in March. The Times clarifies that it has not seen that video.
Note: neither Huang nor Powell has confirmed the report. When the Times called him on Wednesday, Huang replied: “I don’t think you should be talking to me directly,” and hung up. Nvidia declined to comment and Powell did not respond.
Why does it matter so much that she reports to him? According to the Times, Nvidia’s code of conduct asks employees to avoid situations that create a conflict, including “personal relationships.” Many companies prohibit a boss from having a relationship with a subordinate.
This is where the story gets more serious. Media outlets identify the first woman as Alice Huang (the two are not related), an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore company that is a major Nvidia customer. According to the Times, U.S. intelligence officials believe she was spying for China. Beijing denies it: Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said the accusation “has no basis,” according to NPR.
That Sunday, the board opened an independent investigation, led by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and former Manhattan federal prosecutor Joon Kim, according to The Guardian. It also said it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised, and expressed “confidence” in Huang, according to its statement.
In Washington, the matter is already political. Republicans John Moolenaar, Brian Mast and Rick Crawford, chairmen of House committees, requested a closed-door meeting for November 18; Mast told ABC News he would compel him to appear if he does not respond. Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer called for his resignation, and the office of Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked the government to preserve all documents on Nvidia chip exports to China, according to CNBC. If you want the background, here is our report on the Trump administration’s permission to sell Nvidia chips to China.
Kress has been executive vice president and chief financial officer since September 2013, and previously worked nearly 25 years in finance at Cisco and Microsoft, according to the statement. She will remain chief financial officer while serving as interim CEO. The board will search for a permanent CEO and will consider internal and external candidates. Before the announcement, Semafor (via The Verge) had named Johny Srouji, Apple’s head of hardware, among the names on the list; Nvidia has said nothing about it.
Kress said: “Nvidia’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the past 33 years.” Jones, for his part, stressed that she knows the company’s business, customers and finances inside and out.
The market reacted quickly. According to CNBC, the stock was down 10.5% before the open (9:05 a.m. ET); NBC News reports drops of more than 11% after the announcement. It was already struggling: down more than 20% in a month, and more than $600 billion in market value lost during the week, according to Al Jazeera. Reuters, in The Globe and Mail, reports that the drop weighed on the entire market. Huang is Nvidia’s fourth-largest shareholder, with about 3.61%, and will no longer be on the board.
Before the announcement, analysts were already divided on the outlook. Dan Ives estimated the stock was worth $300 with Huang and $225 without him. Bernstein cut its price target from $400 to $200, and its analyst Stacy Rasgon said the alleged relationship with a subordinate made it “much harder for the board to keep him in the job.” Several analysts told CNBC the stock could fall 20% if Huang left.
And what does this have to do with me, if I never bought Nvidia? Probably more than you think. Nvidia makes up about 7% of the S&P 500; according to State Street data cited by The Economic Times, it was 7.78% of the SPY fund as of October 22. That means that in many ETFs, index funds and 401(k) retirement plans that track the S&P 500 (such as SPY, VOO or IVV), about $700 of every $10,000 is in Nvidia. In QQQ (Nasdaq-100) it weighs 7.68%, and in Vanguard’s VGT, 17.58%, according to Benzinga. If the stock plunges, millions of people who never bought it directly will feel it.
For artificial intelligence, the blow goes beyond one stock. Reuters says his departure leaves the industry without its biggest champion and threatens to disrupt an ecosystem that Huang helped finance by investing Nvidia’s cash in cloud providers, manufacturers and major AI labs. Axios calls the company the backbone of the global AI economy, and economist Mohamed El-Erian warned on X: “This is not just any CEO. It is not just any company. It is not just any sector. It is not just any moment.” It also comes right before the Anthropic IPO, backed by a $10 billion commitment from Nvidia, according to Axios.
On the other hand, the board insists that operations, customers and products will continue without interruption. And Huang’s legacy is enormous: he co-founded Nvidia 33 years ago and turned it into a company worth about $4 trillion, with a stock that has risen about 14-fold since the launch of ChatGPT, according to CNBC.
Nvidia will report its fiscal 2027 third-quarter results on Tuesday, November 17, as scheduled, and the next day, November 18, is the meeting requested by the House committees. There we will see whether the company reassures the market and what else emerges about Megaspeed.
In the meantime, stay calm. Log in to your retirement account, look at which funds you hold and how much of your money depends on a few large companies. This isn’t about rushing for the exits or making panic decisions, but about checking whether your portfolio is well diversified. And if you have questions, consult a financial advisor. We will keep following the story.
Sources: Nvidia press release (GlobeNewswire); Associated Press; The Guardian; NBC News; CNBC; Reuters, via The Globe and Mail; Wired; The New York Times, via Business Standard; The Washington Post; CNBC; CNBC, analysts; Axios; Al Jazeera; The Economic Times; Benzinga. Data retrieved on November 12, 2026.
Main photo: EFE/EPA/TOLGA AKMEN
