breaking! Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned, effective immediately, ending his 33 years at the helm of the company he founded.
Huang is also leaving the board. Colette Kress, Nvidia's senior vice president and chief financial officer since 2013, will serve as interim CEO and remain as CFO while the board searches for a permanent replacement. Harvey Jones, former CEO of the chip design company Synopsys and director of Nvidia since 1993, was appointed the company's first chairman of the board.
The resignation comes less than a week after Huang admitted to an affair with Alice Huang (Huang Le), a Chinese national and former executive at Singaporean data center company Mega Speed. US officials say she is a Chinese intelligence asset. Beijing dismissed the spy story as a smear campaign. Nvidia itself said it had "no reason to believe" that national security or company secrets were compromised. On Wednesday, the American media reported a second affair, this time with an Nvidia executive. The board met late that night, and Huang disappeared Thursday morning.
The market takes it badly. Nvidia shares fell around 11% in premarket trading to around $155, more than 35% below their October peak. The company has lost roughly $600 billion since the board opened its investigation, and Bernstein, Oppenheimer and Bird downgraded the stock. Huang still owns about 3.6% of the company.