New York Times Reports a Second Affair Allegation Against Nvidia's Jensen Huang, This Time With an Executive Who Reported to Him

The New York Times reported on Wednesday, November 11, that Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company's vice-president of healthcare, who reported directly to him. The allegation, which neither Huang nor Powell has confirmed, landed hours before reports that Nvidia's board was preparing to consider removing Huang as chief executive.

The Times cited five people who worked at Nvidia. Two of them said Huang and Powell were seen being affectionate at a hotel in San Jose, California, during Nvidia's annual GTC developer conference in March. A bystander filmed the interaction on a mobile phone, according to the report, but the newspaper said it had not independently viewed the footage.

The Times also reported, citing three people briefed on the incident, that members of Huang's security team spotted the person filming, took the individual aside and offered them a nondisclosure agreement. Huang, 63, and Powell, 48, are both married, but not to each other, according to the report.

What Huang said when asked

When the Times reached Huang by phone and asked about Powell, he replied: "I don't think you should be talking to me directly." He then hung up, according to the newspaper. Nvidia declined to issue a statement to the Times, and Powell did not respond to requests for comment from the Times, CNBC or Reuters. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report.

That matters, because the account rests on unnamed sources and a video the newspaper has not viewed, and it has not been tested in any formal process. The only relationship Huang has admitted is the one connected to the spy reporting: in a message to employees on Sunday, November 8, he acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife, without naming anyone.

Who Kimberly Powell is

Powell is a long-serving Nvidia executive rather than a public figure. She joined the company in 2008, took charge of its healthcare business in 2017, and now serves as vice-president of healthcare and life sciences, responsible for Nvidia's worldwide healthcare business. Her first job at Nvidia was getting its graphics chips inside medical imaging equipment, and she has since become one of the company's public faces for using AI in drug discovery, speaking regularly at its GTC conference and at events such as the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Powell is one of roughly 60 executives who answer directly to Huang, a founder who has spent 33 years running Nvidia and kept an unusually large number of decisions close to him. The Times reported that Nvidia has rules discouraging relationships between managers and subordinates. Powell was due to take the stage in Washington on Thursday morning at the Milken Institute's Future of Health Summit, on a panel called "Engineering the Next Era of Human Health". The summit programme still listed her as Nvidia's vice-president of healthcare and life sciences.

Why this allegation hit harder

The first affair, with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman US intelligence officials believe passed information to Beijing, raised questions about national security and foreign intelligence. The Powell allegation raises a different set of questions: about workplace conduct, power and the rules a chief executive is expected to follow inside his own company.

That distinction is important to the board. A relationship with a subordinate is the kind of conduct that company policies typically address directly, and it is harder for a board to set aside than a private matter. The allegation arrived on the same day the board was meeting to discuss Huang's future, and within hours the Wall Street Journal reported the board was preparing to oust him. Nvidia's shares fell about 7 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the Times report.

For now, the Powell allegation remains unproven. What is documented is that it was reported by one of the world's most prominent newspapers, based on five former colleagues, and that neither Huang, Powell nor Nvidia has confirmed or denied it in public.

Read our earlier coverage: a US senator called on Huang to resign over the spy affair.

Sources

• NDTV Profit — Who Is Kimberly Powell? (New York Times reporting)
• Invezz — Who is Kimberly Powell? Nvidia stock slides 7% after hours on new Jensen Huang report
• News18 — Another Affair Allegation Rocks Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, This Time With Company VP
• VnExpress International — Who is Kimberly Powell, alleged second mistress of Jensen Huang?