Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia’s president, chief executive officer and board member effective immediately, ending his 33 year run as the chipmaker’s only CEO. The board appointed Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress, who has led Nvidia’s finance organization since 2013, as interim CEO while working with an external search firm to identify a permanent replacement.
The departure follows an emergency board meeting Wednesday night after the New York Times reported that Huang had an extramarital relationship with a direct report, Healthcare Vice President Kimberly Powell, days after he admitted to a separate affair with Megaspeed founder Alice Huang, whom US intelligence officials suspect of spying for China. Independent directors had earlier retained Wachtell Lipton partner Joon H. Kim to investigate whether the relationship with Alice Huang compromised company secrets or US national security.
Nvidia shares fell nearly 8% in premarket trading Thursday before the announcement, wiping out about $600 billion in market value over four days as investors weighed the loss of a founder with roughly 60 direct reports and no named successor. The turmoil prompted overnight stock downgrades from Bernstein, Oppenheimer, Evercore ISI, William Blair and Melius Research, with Bernstein halving its price target to $200 from $400.