Nvidia's Jensen Huang resigns amid spy scandal as Washington weighs chip crackdown
The Nvidia founder and CEO stepped down after reported affairs, one with a woman U.S. intelligence concluded was a Chinese spy, thrusting the AI chipmaker into its biggest crisis.
Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang has resigned, the company's board announced, after reports of multiple extramarital affairs — including one with a woman U.S. intelligence concluded was a Chinese spy — thrusting the world's most valuable chipmaker into what CNBC called the biggest crisis of its 33-year history.
Huang admitted the affair with Alice Huang, who is not related to him, before he stepped down. Control passed to Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress, who has taken the helm as interim CEO, CNBC reported.
Spy ties and a widening probe
The disclosure reached far beyond Nvidia's boardroom. According to CNBC, Alice Huang's ties to Nvidia customer Megaspeed place her at the center of a sprawling effort to accumulate AI chips across Southeast Asia. Megaspeed is under investigation for possibly diverting restricted Nvidia chips into the hands of Chinese companies, the network reported.
The relationship dates to 2023, when Nvidia was redesigning chips to comply with early U.S. export controls on sales to China, CNBC said, citing interviews from that period.
Washington turns up the heat
The scandal has turned Capitol Hill into a pressure cooker. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) doubled down on his call for Huang to resign, telling CNBC that as a national security matter the country cannot "run the risk" of a chief executive vulnerable to extortion and blackmail. "As a matter of his own conscience, he should resign," Cramer said.
GOP Reps. Brian Mast, John Moolenaar and Rick Crawford requested that Huang testify before their committees on Nov. 18, and momentum is building to subpoena him, CNBC reported. Lawmakers are also weighing a suite of measures in this year's National Defense Authorization Act to tighten export controls on advanced AI chips.
The China market in the balance
The stakes are enormous. Nvidia sits at the center of the AI boom, and its access to China has been a running battle. Huang has blamed U.S. export controls for cutting Nvidia's share of China's advanced AI chip market from about 95 percent to zero, Ars Technica reported.
President Trump later lifted controls on the H200 chip, which China eventually allowed to be sold to some firms, and China was reported to be weighing whether to let Alibaba and ByteDance import additional Nvidia chips. Whether that opening survives the scandal — and who leads Nvidia next — now hangs over the company and its relations with Washington.