Nvidia has announced the resignation of Jensen Huang as the company's president, chief executive officer and member of the board of directors. The decision took effect immediately.
Huang led the company for 33 years, since its founding in 1993.
Nvidia will be led on an interim basis by its chief financial officer, Colette Kress, who has worked at the company since 2013. She will hold both positions until the board of directors finds a permanent chief executive.
“Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position,” the company said in a press release.
Before joining Nvidia, Kress spent almost 25 years in finance roles at other technology companies, including Cisco and Microsoft.
At the same time, the board of directors appointed Harvey C. Jones as the first chairman of the board in Nvidia's history.
Huang's resignation came amid reports of his alleged extramarital affairs. The scandal erupted at the end of October, when the New York Times reported on a close relationship between the 63-year-old Jensen Huang and a Chinese national, Alice Huang (the two share a surname but are not related). She worked for the Singapore-based company Megaspeed, which bought chips from Nvidia.
According to the NYT, Alice Huang came under close scrutiny over attempts to arrange supplies to China of advanced Nvidia chips designed for artificial intelligence systems. US intelligence agencies concluded that she is an agent of Chinese intelligence.
Huang admitted to employees that he had been unfaithful to his wife, asked his family for forgiveness and said he was ready to cooperate with an independent review initiated by the board of directors. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected all the espionage allegations, calling them groundless.
Reports later appeared in the press of another affair involving Huang, with Kimberly Powell, vice-president of the company's healthcare division. A relationship with a direct subordinate violated the internal corporate code.
Following the announcement, Nvidia shares continued to fall. At the opening of trading today, the company's shares fell by 13%. Over the week, Nvidia's market capitalisation shrank by around $600 billion.
