Nvidia’s board is reportedly preparing to remove co-founder Jensen Huang as chief executive, with a meeting on his future as soon as Wednesday evening, the Wall Street Journal reports. Nvidia’s shares dropped more than 7% in after-hours trading, and the company had not replied to requests for comment when the reports appeared.
This comes after a crisis that started on Sunday, when Huang acknowledged a relationship outside his marriage with a Megaspeed executive whom US intelligence is said to regard as a Chinese agent. Nvidia responded by engaging an outside law firm, Wachtell Lipton, together with former US attorney Joon H. Kim, to handle an investigation, as our earlier post on the board’s probe explains. Acting before that review ends would be a sharp turn.
What changed on Wednesday was a second allegation. The New York Times published a story saying Huang was also involved with one of his own direct reports, drawn from two anonymous sources who place it at Nvidia’s GTC developer conference in March. The paper says it has not viewed any video of the encounter, and Nvidia has not confirmed the allegation or any plan to dismiss him. Until it does, both reports are unverified accounts from unnamed sources.
Huang has been Nvidia’s only chief executive in its 33 years. Any decision would also land in a week when three House committees have asked him for a closed-door briefing on 18 November.
Nvidia has said nothing publicly about a board decision. The next signals would be a statement from the company or a regulatory filing if the board does act.
