Nvidia’s board is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang, reports say

The board that backed him on Sunday is now reported to be preparing his exit

Nvidia’s board of directors is preparing to oust Jensen Huang, its co-founder and chief executive, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, a turn that would end his 33-year reign at the top of the artificial-intelligence economy. The board was preparing to meet as soon as Wednesday to determine his future, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. Nvidia shares fell about 8% in after-hours trading. The report came hours after The New York Times reported a second extramarital affair, with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice-president of health care, who reports to him. The first affair, with Alice Huang of the Singapore data company Megaspeed, is the one American officials suspect of being a channel for Chinese intelligence; Beijing calls the claim unsubstantiated and Megaspeed denies it. On Sunday, Huang had told staff he had been unfaithful to his wife, and the board had opened an independent investigation while declaring its confidence in him. Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report.

What do we know about the two affairs and the board’s inquiry?

The Times first reported the business connection between Huang and Alice Huang in October 2025, and in late October it documented the intelligence concerns around her. On 5 November, Republican lawmakers in the House sought a closed-door briefing from Huang on 18 November. On Sunday 8 November, Huang told employees he had been unfaithful to his wife, and the board announced an independent investigation by its independent directors, adding that it had no reason to believe national security or Nvidia’s secrets had been compromised. On Tuesday 10 November the board hired Joon Kim, a former acting United States attorney, and the firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to run the inquiry. That day a senator called for his resignation and shareholders filed a class action. On Wednesday the Times reported the affair with Powell, citing five people who worked at the company, and the Journal reported the board’s preparations to remove him.

The numbers explain why the market moved so fast. Megaspeed, Nvidia’s largest customer in South-East Asia, bought more than $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over two years, and The Information reported that the affair facilitated the shipment of at least $7.5 billion worth of the company’s chips to Chinese firms. Huang, 63, owns about 3.58% of Nvidia and has roughly 60 direct reports. The company has no chairman, no public succession plan, and a proxy statement that warns it is highly dependent on its longstanding executive team. Under bylaws filed in March 2024, a majority of the directors in office can remove the chief executive with or without cause; removing him from the board itself would take a shareholder vote. The company reports quarterly results on 17 November, and prediction markets now put the odds of Huang leaving by the end of the year at 77%, up from 13% two days earlier. President Trump called Huang honourable and said he believed him when the chief executive said he had no idea the woman was a spy.

What is still unknown about the board’s decision?

No final decision has been confirmed. The Journal reported preparations and a meeting, not a vote, and no successor has been identified. It is not yet clear whether the board met on Wednesday evening, as Reuters reported, or will meet on Thursday, and Nvidia has said nothing publicly since its statement on Sunday. The findings of the Wachtell investigation have not been reported, and no violation of Nvidia’s policies has been established. The board said on Sunday that it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised, but that was a judgment made before the inquiry began, not a finding from it, and the Justice Department is now said to be leading multiple investigations involving Alice Huang. It is also unknown whether the affair with Powell, a direct report, breached company policy, whether Huang will resign before any vote, and whether he would keep his seat on the board if he loses the chief executive’s office.

The fate of one man now prices the whole AI economy

Nvidia is the world’s most valuable company, worth more than $4 trillion, and the dominant supplier of the processors that train and run cutting-edge artificial intelligence. Its chips sit at the centre of the AI build-out, of Washington’s export controls, and of Beijing’s ambitions; which is why a personal scandal at the top has become a question of industrial policy. The company has no succession plan and its own filings warn that a failure to ensure one could hinder its strategic planning and execution. Analysts see few obvious candidates to take Huang’s place, and one research firm has already downgraded the stock and said the odds of a chief-executive transition are rising into 2027. If the board removes its 33-year founder, it would be a seismic moment for the chip giant, in Al Jazeera’s words. The timing sharpens everything: results land on 17 November, Congress wants Huang in a closed room the next day, and the export-control debate is moving through both parties. The scandal has already reopened the argument over chip exports to China, and the board’s decision will shape that argument as much as the company’s future. The market’s verdict arrived first: the shares fell about 8% after hours

Four days from confidence to ouster: what changed

The puzzle of this story is the speed of the reversal. On Sunday the board said it had confidence in Jensen and his leadership team, that it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised, and that Huang would continue as chief executive without interruption. By Wednesday it was reported to be preparing his removal. Three things changed in between. First, the second affair: a relationship with a direct report is a workplace-conduct question, not a counter-intelligence one, and it gives a board a cleaner ground for removal than an unproven spying allegation. Second, the politics: both parties in Congress moved from watching to acting, with subpoenas, preservation letters and a briefing deadline, and a board that looked slow would look complicit. Third, the market: an 8% after-hours fall and a prediction-market stampede turned a governance question into a valuation question, and boards answer valuation questions faster than any other kind. The deeper truth is structural. Nvidia’s governance was built for a founder’s company: no chairman, a lead director who shares the agenda with the chief executive, directors who have sat for decades, and a chief executive who has said openly that he does not believe in succession planning. That structure works while the founder is untouchable; the moment he is not, nobody can catch the company.

If Huang goes, the succession question becomes the market’s problem

The first consequence of a removal would be the search itself. Nvidia has no public succession plan, analysts see few obvious internal candidates, and the Journal notes it was not immediately clear who would succeed him; Fortune has reported that the board was expected to consider an interim leader, with lead independent director Stephen Neal among the contenders. The second consequence is political: a vacancy at the top of the AI chip maker would hand Congress the leverage it has been seeking over export controls, and the AI Overwatch Act and the defence bill’s chip restrictions would gain momentum. The third is legal: the Justice Department’s investigations into Alice Huang, the shareholder class action filed in San Jose, and the Wachtell inquiry would all outlive any change of chief executive, and a new leader would inherit them. And the fourth is the precedent: if the most powerful founder in technology can be removed in four days over conduct, every founder-led board in Silicon Valley will be reading its own bylaws this week.

What decides Huang’s future now?

Watch for the board’s announcement after its meeting, and for whether Huang resigns or is removed by a vote. Watch the Wachtell findings, which will decide whether the removal, if it comes, is framed as conduct or as security. Watch the quarterly results on 17 November and the closed-door House briefing the next day, and watch whether the board names an interim leader. The decision is expected within days.