Jensen Huang, the former Nvidia CEO, is under renewed scrutiny after a new report said he had an affair with another employee at the semiconductor giant. The Reuters report on November 12 came as part of the controversy surrounding the 63-year-old technology executive whose resignation from Nvidia followed reports of two other extramarital affairs.
“Huang was having a relationship with a second female employee at the company,” said two people familiar with the matter. The identity and designation of the employee were not disclosed, and the report has not been independently confirmed by those involved.
The latest allegation took the reported number of relationships involving Huang to at least three. The controversy first gained attention when reports surfaced about his relationship with Alice Huang (or Huang Le), a businesswoman who once worked as a senior executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed International.
US intelligence officials reportedly believe she has links to Chinese intelligence (China denies the allegations). Jensen Huang admitted in a message to Nvidia employees on November 8 that he had been unfaithful to his wife but did not name the person involved in that relationship.
A separate report later alleged Huang had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare, who was reportedly working directly for him. The New York Times reported on the relationship citing five people who had worked at Nvidia. The report also raised questions about workplace relationships, executive accountability and power dynamics between senior leadership and employees. Neither Huang nor Nvidia publicly confirmed details of the allegations in the reports.
The latest Reuters report says Huang also had an intimate relationship with another Nvidia employee. The news agency quoted two people familiar with the matter but didn’t name the employee. “We were unable to reach [the woman],” the news agency said of attempts to contact her.
Nvidia did not comment on the latest Reuters report, and Huang, Powell and a board member representative for the company all declined requests for comment. With this latest development, the allegations have moved beyond the two relationships that had been in the public spotlight.
Huang’s personal scandal has come at a time of major leadership change at Nvidia. The company announced he was stepping down as president, chief executive officer and board member on November 12 with immediate effect; Huang had run the company since co-founding it in 1993 and was widely considered one of the most powerful people in the global artificial intelligence industry. His departure is a watershed moment for Nvidia, whose processors have become central to AI systems, data centres and HPC infrastructure.
After his departure, Nvidia’s board named CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO. The company is looking internally and externally for a permanent successor and has also appointed Harvey Jones as chairman of the board. This leadership transition comes at a critical time for Nvidia, which is central to the global AI market; it has extensive business relationships with technology companies, cloud service providers and artificial intelligence developers.
The allegations against Alice Huang have also raised questions about Huang’s personal life. US intelligence concerns over her reported ties to Chinese intelligence have cast doubt on whether the former Nvidia chief executive was targeted as part of a foreign intelligence operation.
Nvidia’s board had set up an investigation led by independent directors and outside legal counsel to look into it. China has denied espionage charges, calling them baseless. Nvidia said previously that it had no reason to believe its national security interests or confidential company information had been compromised but would examine what information was available.
Huang’s resignation and the increasing number of reports have put Nvidia under a lot of public and investor scrutiny. Nvidia’s leadership going forward, how the board will proceed with its investigation and what the fallout from the allegations might be will all be major talking points in technology for some time to come, but keep in mind that these are not facts but reports: the latest relationship allegation is based on sources cited by Reuters; the unnamed employee hasn’t commented; Nvidia has declined to comment. The news adds another layer to the controversy over one of the most prominent executives in global tech.
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