Nvidia’s board of directors announced the immediate resignation of CEO Jensen Huang on November 12, 2026. Colette Kress, the company’s CFO, will step in as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor to lead the firm.
The sudden departure follows revelations of a second extramarital affair involving Huang and an Nvidia executive. This scandal coincides with a catastrophic market reaction, as Nvidia’s market value has plummeted by roughly $1.4 trillion since October 29, 2026.
US authorities have concluded that the executive Huang had an affair with acted as a Chinese intelligence asset. Huang’s exit threatens to destabilize Nvidia’s complex ecosystem of customer guarantees and alliances, potentially disrupting major clients like Microsoft and Amazon as well as AI labs such as OpenAI. This leadership vacuum creates significant uncertainty for the AI industry.
