Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, a fixture at President Donald Trump’s White House, resigned effective immediately Thursday, days after admitting to an affair with a woman U.S. officials suspect of spying for China.
Nvidia’s board said in a statement that Huang also left the board. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO. The announcement did not mention the scandal, but the board ousted Huang after reports of two affairs, Bloomberg reported. Nvidia shares fell about 10% in premarket trading.
Huang met Trump many times as Nvidia lobbied for looser limits on chip sales to China, Reuters reported. He was a frequent Oval Office guest, attended the White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping, flew with Trump on Air Force One to China in May, and received the National Medal of Science from Trump in October. Nvidia has also committed $25 million to Trump’s White House ballroom, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
A source told CNN that Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Trump aboard Air Force One in May that Huang was involved with a suspected Chinese spy. Trump has said he only recently learned of the allegations, and days before Huang’s ouster, he defended him as honorable.
Huang admitted last weekend to an affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, a major Nvidia customer. The two are not related. China has denied the espionage claims, and Trump said Huang told him he didn’t know she was a spy.
“There is no excuse for what I did,” Huang wrote in a Nov. 8 message to employees.
The New York Times later reported that Huang also had a relationship with an Nvidia vice president who reports to him.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons have demanded that top Trump aides preserve records tied to Nvidia’s China sales, while National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer urged Huang to resign. CNN intelligence analyst John Miller described the alleged operation as a potential espionage windfall for Beijing.
“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,” said Harvey C. Jones, named the board’s first-ever chair.