Nvidia Board Weighs Jensen Huang's Future as Reports Say It Is Preparing to Remove Him

Nvidia's board of directors met on Wednesday, November 11, to decide the future of chief executive Jensen Huang, as the world's most valuable chipmaker grapples with a crisis that has already wiped about $600 billion from its market value this week.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter, that the board is preparing to oust Huang and could meet as soon as that day to determine his future. Bloomberg reported separately that the board is working with an outside firm to identify potential replacements and is considering naming an interim chief executive while it searches. The Financial Times also reported that the board was set to hold urgent talks about Huang's future on Wednesday.

No decision had been announced as of early Thursday, November 12. Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the board meeting. Reuters, which summarised the Journal's report, said it could not immediately verify it.

What the reports say

According to the Journal, the board moved to consider Huang's removal after reports of two extramarital affairs involving the 63-year-old chief executive, including one with a woman US intelligence officials believe was spying for China. The New York Times reported earlier on Wednesday that Huang had also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice-president of healthcare, who reported directly to him.

Bloomberg's reporting added a practical dimension to the crisis: the board is already working with an outside firm on possible successors and weighing whether to appoint a temporary chief executive during the search. That is a striking step for a company that has never had a succession plan for the man who co-founded it in 1993 and built it over more than three decades into the dominant supplier of the AI chips at the centre of the global artificial-intelligence boom.

Shares swung sharply

Investors reacted fast. Nvidia's shares closed Wednesday's regular session up 2.9 percent at $173.73, but then fell about 8 percent in after-hours trading after the Journal's report. Including that selloff, the company has lost about $600 billion in stock market value this week since the board announced its investigation.

Betting markets reflected the uncertainty. On Polymarket, traders put about a 30 percent chance on Huang's resignation being announced as soon as Thursday, and about a 68 percent chance that he leaves the company by the end of the month. Those are betting odds, not facts, but they show how seriously the market is taking the possibility of a leadership change at a roughly $4 trillion company.

How the crisis reached this point

The controversy began on Sunday, November 8, when Huang acknowledged in a message to employees that he had been unfaithful to his wife. The same day, Nvidia's board launched an investigation into whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation, after the New York Times reported his close relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman US intelligence officials believe passed information to Beijing. The two are not related.

The board said at the time that it had "no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised", and said it retained its confidence in Huang and the company's management. It also retained former acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon H. Kim and his firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, to run an independent investigation.

If the Journal's reporting is accurate, the board reversed course in just three days, moving from a public vote of support to actively considering Huang's removal. That shift followed the second affair allegation and growing pressure from Washington, where the FBI has opened its own inquiry and House Republicans are pressing Huang to testify.

The succession problem

Removing Huang immediately would be difficult, analysts say, because Nvidia has no succession plan in place. "Huang being removed immediately could be challenging for Nvidia since it does not have a succession plan in place," Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, said. "If Mr. Huang broke the law or violated company policies, the board is likely to act as soon as they have proof."

Analysts quoted by Newsweek and CFO Dive have floated chief financial officer Colette Kress as a possible interim leader and longtime Nvidia executive Ian Buck as an internal option, but those are outside views, not board decisions. No successor has been named, and Huang owns about 3.6 percent of Nvidia's stock, making him its largest individual shareholder.

What happens next

For now, Huang remains chief executive while the board's investigation continues. Investors will be watching for any statement from the board, and Nvidia's quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, November 17, is shaping up as the next moment when the company will have to answer questions about the investigation, its leadership and its stability.

The stakes go beyond one company. Nvidia controls an estimated 90 percent of the market for the chips used in the biggest AI projects, and its fortunes are now tied to questions of national security, US-China technology rivalry and corporate governance at the same time. Whatever the board decides, the decision will land in the middle of all three.

Read our earlier coverage of the crisis: a US senator called on Huang to resign, and a blacklisted Chinese university obtained Nvidia's H200 AI chips.

Sources

• The Straits Times — Nvidia board prepares to oust CEO Jensen Huang (Reuters)
• Rappler — Nvidia board meets to decide CEO Huang's future, source says (Reuters)
• The Japan Times — Nvidia preparing to oust Jensen Huang after affairs, WSJ says
• ShiftDelete — Jensen Huang: Nvidia Board Prepares to Oust CEO, WSJ Says