Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive of Nvidia after allegations about his personal relationships and reported links to a woman suspected by US intelligence agencies of working for China.
The departure ends Huang’s 33-year tenure at the chipmaker, which became the central supplier to the artificial intelligence industry during his leadership. Nvidia said chief financial officer Colette Kress would serve as interim chief executive, but gave no reason for his resignation.
Huang’s exit came within weeks of a high-profile European tour in which he presented Nvidia as a driving force behind the next phase of the AI boom. In London, he told technology founders: “I’m gonna invest in you! I’m gonna invest in you!”
At one point, Nvidia’s market value exceeded 5.7 trillion dollars, making it the world’s most valuable company. Huang became one of the most influential figures in technology, championing the construction of data centres and investing heavily in the businesses that depend on Nvidia’s chips.
Jensen Huang’s resignation and the China allegations
Huang’s resignation followed reports that US intelligence agencies believed he had been involved with Alice Huang, a former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data centre company that bought billions of dollars’ worth of Nvidia chips. The two are not related.
People briefed on US intelligence told the New York Times that Alice Huang had been recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security to collect information about American AI chips and encourage Nvidia to lobby for the sale of its more advanced products in China.
Megaspeed had long been suspected of helping Chinese companies evade US export controls, according to reports cited in the source material. Nvidia’s board said it had “no reason to believe” company secrets or national security had been compromised, while China dismissed the allegations as “groundless speculation and slander”.
After the allegations emerged, Huang told Nvidia’s 42,000 employees that he had been “unfaithful” to his wife and was “deeply sorry”. The company’s board began an independent investigation, while US congressional leaders called Huang to answer questions and federal agencies investigated the wider matter.
The New York Times subsequently reported allegations of a second affair involving an Nvidia executive who reported directly to Huang. By the following morning, the company’s long-serving chief executive had submitted his resignation.
Nvidia did not respond to multiple questions about the allegations in the material provided. Its board maintained that it had no reason to believe sensitive information had been compromised.
A separate investigation into whether Megaspeed had smuggled Nvidia chips into China was reportedly transferred from the US Commerce Department to the Justice Department after Nvidia’s general counsel contacted the officials involved. The company said it had approached officials to answer questions, provide information gathered from the field and seek guidance.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the focus should be on whether Nvidia had properly understood its customer and taken sufficient steps to prevent chips reaching restricted buyers. He also suggested that the Commerce Department had delayed efforts to impose restrictions on Megaspeed, although a Commerce spokeswoman denied that claim.
Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have been summoned to testify before the Senate Banking Committee about the handling of Nvidia chip exports and the Megaspeed case.
Nvidia’s influence over the AI industry
The scandal has intensified scrutiny of Nvidia’s role in financing the AI sector. The company had invested nearly 50 billion dollars in leading AI model developers by the end of July, with its total equity investments across the ecosystem reaching roughly 99 billion dollars.
Nvidia has invested in energy companies, data centre operators, chipmakers, model developers and AI applications. It has also used its investment-grade credit to help AI companies and so-called neocloud providers raise finance.
Its commitments of this kind total 170 billion dollars, including guarantees worth 105 billion dollars for OpenAI relating to a facility in Ohio. Nvidia has also been discussing a plan with Wall Street lenders to support a 500 billion dollar market for securities backed by AI chips.
Critics have described the company as the “central bank of AI”, arguing that it funds companies which then use the money to buy Nvidia hardware. They say the arrangements could conceal weak demand, inflate a financial bubble and leave the wider industry dangerously dependent on one company.
Huang rejected the criticism, saying Nvidia took minority stakes and that other investors therefore had to support the companies as well. “We’ve created an industry that the VCs alone cannot fund,” he said, arguing that the company’s investments had “returned fabulously”.
The most exposed businesses may be the neocloud providers, which purchase Nvidia chips, install them in data centres and rent computing capacity to AI companies. Some count Nvidia as a supplier, investor and customer.
Analysts have warned that if major customers such as OpenAI or CoreWeave cannot generate enough revenue to meet their obligations, Nvidia could lose both chip sales and investments while becoming responsible for some of their debts. The resulting damage could spread through financial markets and hit Nvidia’s share price.
Following Huang’s resignation, Nvidia shares fell by as much as 14 per cent, briefly taking the company’s market value below four trillion dollars before it recovered some of the losses.
Pressure on Nvidia’s China strategy
China has long been an important market for Nvidia, but US restrictions introduced in 2022 barred the sale of its most advanced AI chips there. Subsequent rule changes also blocked scaled-down models, while Beijing discouraged Chinese AI companies from buying American chips.
Huang had argued that the controls had reduced Nvidia’s share of China’s AI chip market from 95 per cent to zero. He lobbied for a relaxation of the rules, saying that allowing Nvidia to sell there would help American technology become the global standard and prevent Chinese rivals from gaining ground.
After Donald Trump returned to the White House, Huang donated one million dollars to his inauguration fund and made repeated visits to Mar-a-Lago. In late 2025, Nvidia secured permission to sell a second-tier chip to approved Chinese customers, with the US government taking 25 per cent of the proceeds.
Ed Mills, a policy analyst at Raymond James, said Huang’s lobbying had been “very effective”. He described a belief in Washington that Nvidia could help make Chinese companies dependent on American technology rather than developing alternatives.
Huang’s departure is expected to strengthen calls for tighter export restrictions. Three bills covering AI chips and advanced semiconductor equipment are attached to defence legislation awaiting passage in Congress.
Some proposed rules could address a loophole allowing Chinese companies to access Nvidia chips remotely through data centres in other Asian countries. Further measures could require chipmakers, resellers and cloud providers to identify not only their direct customers but also the customers using their systems.
There may also be pressure for restrictions on open-source AI models. The most capable open-source models have been developed by Chinese laboratories, leading some policymakers to equate open-source technology with China, according to Mills.
What Huang’s departure means for Nvidia
Nvidia’s core business remains powerful. Its chips are still the industry standard, with supply sold out and contracted through the following year, and the company controls an estimated 80 per cent of the global AI chip market.
But its largest customers are increasingly looking for alternatives. Google uses its own TPU chips for training its Gemini models, Amazon is developing Trainium, and OpenAI is designing silicon with Broadcom. Anthropic uses Google’s chips, AMD processors and Amazon’s technology as well as Nvidia products.
Countries including the UK are also seeking to build domestic chip capabilities and develop AI systems capable of running on a mixture of hardware. That could reduce dependence on Nvidia, whose data centre business accounts for more than 90 per cent of its sales.
Analysts believe Huang’s personal influence was central to Nvidia’s success. His flat management structure enabled rapid decision-making, but the company had no president, chief operating officer or obvious second-in-command when he left.
Francine McKenna, a journalist specialising in corporate governance and accounting, said Nvidia could survive “independent of his cult of personality”. Jay Goldberg, an analyst at Seaport Research Partners, warned that the company could lose its appetite for bold decisions and become “just another chip company”.
Huang was also Nvidia’s most effective advocate in Washington. His departure removes the company’s most prominent opponent of tighter controls on chip sales to China and could give rivals, customers and policymakers greater room to challenge its position.
AMD and Broadcom are expected to benefit from any loss of confidence in Nvidia, while Google’s TPU technology could attract more attention. The company’s partners may also seek tougher terms now that Huang is no longer personally negotiating with them.
Huang has withdrawn from public appearances since the allegations emerged. In his only public statement, he said: “I support the investigation and will cooperate fully. I am committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America’s national security.”
The immediate question for Nvidia and the wider AI industry is whether the businesses built around Huang’s influence can continue without him. The sector may be large enough to withstand the departure of its most prominent advocate, but the company and its partners must now demonstrate that the boom rests on more than confidence in one man.
