Bessent Calls for 'Dramatic Shakeup' at Nvidia, Urges Outside CEO

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday called for a "dramatic shakeup" at Nvidia and urged its board to look outside the company for a new chief executive, questioning whether the chipmaker pursued illicit sales of advanced AI chips to boost earnings.

"I want to keep coming back to what was the culture at Nvidia, and were they pressing these seemingly illicit sales to goose their revenues and their earnings?" Bessent said in an interview on Fox News, according to CNBC.

The remarks intensify a growing feud between Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's department over the suspected diversion of advanced AI chips to China, even as Bessent continues to defend President Donald Trump's handling of the matter. Reports have described Lutnick as taking a softer line on Nvidia.

A CEO ousted in a week

The comments follow the abrupt departure of Nvidia founder and chief executive Jensen Huang, who resigned as president, CEO and board member effective immediately, the company announced Nov. 12. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress was appointed interim CEO and will keep her CFO role until a permanent successor is named, while the board searches for internal and external candidates.

The board also named Harvey C. Jones its first-ever chair. "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," Jones said.

Huang, who founded Nvidia in 1993 and steered its rise into one of the world's most valuable companies, stepped down after admitting to an extramarital affair and after the board said it would investigate whether he was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, CNN reported. The inquiry followed reports of his relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen who worked for Singapore-based Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer U.S. officials suspect of diverting chips to China in violation of export controls. Nvidia shares fell more than 10% in premarket trading the day of the announcement.

Pressure beyond the CEO

Bessent suggested Nvidia's compliance problems extend beyond Huang. "If this were a bank and they hadn't complied like this, the OCC would be in there right now, and a lot of the executives would be removed," he said, referring to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He also questioned the company's disclosures, pointing to a surge in reported Singapore revenue as its China sales fell.

Nvidia is scheduled to report third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday.