Jensen Huang resigned as chief executive of AI giant Nvidia on Thursday, the company said, after revelations he had two extramarital affairs, including one with a woman accused of spying for China.
Chief financial officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor, ending Huang’s 33-year run at the helm of the global juggernaut he co-founded.
Huang, 63, also gave up his seat on the board. The company did not give a reason for his departure.
The scandal has sent shares of the multi-trillion-dollar company plunging, and the exit of Huang, who has been a key promoter of the artificial intelligence boom, leaves Nvidia without its founding leader at a crucial time for the sector.
Nvidia shares were down more than 10 percent in premarket trading Thursday following the announcement. The stock was already down around 25 percent from its all-time high in early October.
Beijing has rejected the spying allegations.
The board said it had appointed Harvey Jones, a former chief executive of chip design software firm Synopsys, as its first-ever chair.
“The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption,” Jones said in a statement.
Kress said she was committed to “building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.”
The scandal began with reports that Huang, who has been married to Lori Huang for more than 40 years, was involved in an extramarital relationship.
Jensen Huang admitted on Sunday to having an affair, reportedly with Alice Huang, who was a senior executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed. The two are not related.
