SAN FRANCISCO — Ousted Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang had an intimate relationship with a second employee of the company, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two people familiar with the matter. The report, which landed hours after Huang resigned, is the third extramarital relationship now alleged against the man who built Nvidia into the world's most valuable chipmaker.
Reuters did not name the second employee, and said attempts to reach her were not successful. Nvidia declined to comment. Powell, Huang and a representative for Nvidia's board did not reply to requests for comment, and Alice Huang could not be reached for comment.
The revelation follows two other relationships that led to Huang's resignation on November 12. The first was with Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed whom U.S. intelligence officials suspect of working for Chinese intelligence. The New York Times then reported on Wednesday that Huang also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice-president of healthcare. Huang admitted to an affair in a statement on November 8, without naming anyone. "I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did," he said.
Huang resigned on Thursday as president, chief executive and a board member, effective immediately, ending a 33-year tenure at the company he co-founded in 1993. Chief financial officer Colette Kress will serve as interim chief executive while the board conducts a search for a permanent successor, considering internal and external candidates.
Nvidia shares fell 5.5% on Thursday and have shed more than 30% of their value since their early-October peak, as investors weigh the leadership vacuum at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom. Huang's departure could disrupt the AI industry he helped shape: Nvidia has used its financial strength to help create an industry around AI, backing cloud computing companies and AI labs to ease purchases of its chips.
The board launched an independent probe on November 8, led by independent directors with outside legal counsel, into whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. It said at the time that it had no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, but that the inquiry would examine all available information.
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Thursday that the Justice Department had not yet decided whether Alice Huang was a Chinese spy, while confirming that the FBI was investigating reports that she worked for the Chinese government. Beijing has rejected the spying allegations as unsubstantiated. The Information has reported that Alice Huang helped facilitate Chinese companies' access to about 240,000 AI chips worth roughly $7.5 billion.
Investors will next turn to Nvidia's third-quarter results on Tuesday, November 17 — the first since Huang's departure. Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives have also called on Huang to appear and testify before Congress about the affair on November 18.
