The co-founder of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has resigned this Thursday with immediate effect as president, CEO and member of the board of directors of the American technology giant, as announced by the company itself in a community.
Following this, Nvidia has appointed its chief financial officer, Colette Kress, as interim CEO, and has appointed for the first time a chairman of the board, Harvey C. Jones. In its statement, Nvidia assures that it hopes to maintain its operations, commitments to its customers and its technological roadmap without interruptions.
The resignation comes just four days after Nvidia announced an investigation into reports linking Huang to a possible foreign intelligence operation. In that statement, the company assured that it had no reason to believe that corporate secrets or information related to the national security of the United States had been compromised.
Two alleged infidelities
The crisis began within the company on November 8, when Nvidia announced an independent investigation following information that indicated its founder as a possible target of a foreign intelligence operation.
That same day, Huang broadcast a message in which he acknowledged having been unfaithful to his wife and apologized for the harm caused to his family. Likewise, the CEO also took responsibility for his conduct and agreed to collaborate with the investigation.
In that communication, the businessman expressed his intention to continue leading Nvidia and regain the trust of workers, partners and shareholders. However, four days later, he has resigned from all his executive positions and his position on the board of directors.
The board itself weighed for hours whether to replace Huang after his infidelities with two women were discovered, one of them a Chinese spy and the other, an employee of the company who was under his supervision.
After confirming his departure, the board has decided to present it as a resignation from Huang himself, a key person in the construction of the company. And his figure has been established as one of the great influences in the technology industry.
The impact on the stock market
Once the scandal was uncovered, the company began to notice the effects on the stock market. In total, the company has lost a third of its value in just one month, the equivalent of nearly two trillion market capitalization.
The company’s shares have fallen around 8% this Wednesday in trading after the market closed. For this reason, the main shareholders have wanted to stop the fall in the stock market by trying to pressure the board to force Huang’s departure before the fall worsened.
The US’s fear that national security would be compromised
In addition to the actions carried out by the company, the United States Congress asked the CEO for a closed-door appearance to explain whether sensitive information had been shared about President Donald Trump’s position on AI.
And Alice Huang, his lover, is suspected of operating for China’s Ministry of State Security even though the country has rejected the accusations. For this reason, both the board of directors of Nvidia and the FBI have opened an investigation to clarify what happened.
