Jensen Huang quits Nvidia as AI chipmaker loses $550bn in five days

Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive of Nvidia after revelations of two alleged extramarital affairs sent the AI chipmaker's stock into its steepest five-day fall since the company went public 27 years ago — a loss of $550bn in market value.

Huang, who had been Nvidia's public face since 1993, admitted on Sunday to having been "unfaithful" to his wife after reports emerged of an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a Singapore-based executive at Megaspeed who has been suspected of being an intelligence asset for China. China has rejected those allegations. On Wednesday a second alleged affair was reported, this time with a long-time Nvidia executive, Kimberly Powell, who reported directly to Huang within the company.

Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress was named interim CEO on Thursday and convened an emergency meeting of the executive team. Nvidia said it has launched an investigation into whether its CEO had been "the target of a foreign intelligence effort" but stated it has "no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised".

US lawmakers moved quickly. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons, along with other Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, publicly demanded Huang brief Congress on the affair. US Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Department of Justice had not yet drawn any conclusions about whether Alice Huang was engaged in espionage for Beijing.

Because Nvidia accounts for approximately 7% of the S&P 500 index — widely held in American retirement accounts — the decline has broad implications for ordinary savers. Nvidia is now searching for a permanent replacement for Huang.