Jensen Huang has stepped down as chief executive officer, president and board member of Nvidia, effective immediately, the company said in a statement on 12.11.2026. The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's board had been preparing to dismiss Huang after revelations about two extramarital affairs, one of them with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy.
Nvidia's market capitalization has dropped by roughly $1.4 trillion since the New York Times reported on 29.10.2026 about possible ties between the company and Chinese intelligence. Chief financial officer Colette Kress will run the company on an interim basis while the board looks for a permanent successor. Harvey C. Jones will become Nvidia's first independent board chair and stressed that business operations continue without disruption.
Finding a replacement is expected to be hard because Nvidia was built almost entirely around Huang. He secured the company's market position through an intricate network of alliances with financiers and roughly $300 billion in guarantees for smaller customers. His departure threatens to unravel that structure, which he used both to keep major tech rivals at bay and to support large parts of the AI industry.
Large customers such as Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, together with AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic, rely heavily on Nvidia's chips. At the same time, the company's 75 percent profit margin is pushing those customers to develop their own cheaper alternatives. Huang also left no clear succession plan: more than 60 employees reported directly to him, leaving internal and external candidates alike starting from a weakened position.