Nvidia Board Preps to Oust Jensen Huang After Affair Reports

Nvidia's board is preparing to meet on the future of founder and chief executive Jensen Huang after the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that directors are weighing whether to remove him, according to a timeline compiled by TechCrunch. The reporting caps a week in which Huang, 63, admitted to an extramarital affair, a second relationship surfaced inside the company, and federal investigators connected one of his alleged romantic partners to an AI-chip buyer under Justice Department scrutiny.

Huang, who co-founded Nvidia and has led it for more than three decades, has cultivated a far lower public profile than peers such as OpenAI's Sam Altman or SpaceX's Elon Musk, TechCrunch noted in its Nov. 11 timeline. That profile shifted within a single week, as four separate storylines converged: an admitted affair, a second affair allegation, a spy allegation tied to a chip customer, and a sudden stock selloff.

What did Jensen Huang admit, and when?

Huang acknowledged on November 11, 2026, that he had cheated on his wife of 40 years, TechCrunch reported. The admission came as U.S. officials signaled concern that his conduct carried implications beyond his marriage, citing the national-security stakes of the Nvidia chips at the center of the relationship, per TechCrunch's Nov. 11 timeline.

Who is Alice Huang, and why do officials call her a spy?

U.S. officials believe Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based AI infrastructure firm Megaspeed, is a Chinese spy feeding information to Beijing, TechCrunch reported Nov. 11. She shares a surname with the Nvidia CEO but is not related to him, and she is a Chinese citizen, according to the same report.

How much Nvidia hardware moved through Megaspeed?

Megaspeed purchased $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over the prior two years, TechCrunch reported Nov. 11. Both the United States and Singapore had already investigated Megaspeed on suspicion that the company was illegally funneling chips to China, and the Justice Department has since taken over the federal probe, according to the New York Times as cited in TechCrunch's timeline.

What does the Kimberly Powell report add?

The New York Times, citing five people who worked at Nvidia, reported Nov. 11 that Huang also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company's vice president of health care, who reports directly to him. The two were reportedly captured on video "being affectionate" at a hotel during a conference earlier this year, per the Times account relayed by TechCrunch. The allegation, if confirmed, would mark the second extramarital relationship attributed to Huang within the same week of reporting, intensifying scrutiny of Nvidia's governance, per TechCrunch's Nov. 11 timeline. Nvidia, Huang and Powell have not confirmed the report, and when a Times reporter reached Huang directly, he said, "I don't think you should be talking to me directly," before hanging up, according to TechCrunch's write-up of the Times story.

Why does the affair intersect with the US-China AI race?

Nvidia sits at the center of a technological contest between the United States and China over who builds the most advanced AI infrastructure, a race that could shape each country's economic output, military capability and capacity for innovation, TechCrunch reported Nov. 11. Nvidia's chips are considered essential to that buildout, but U.S. export rules restrict the company from selling its most powerful processors to Chinese entities, according to the same report. That backdrop is why a $4.8 billion customer relationship now under Justice Department review, and an alleged intelligence connection to a company executive, carries weight beyond Huang's personal life, per TechCrunch's Nov. 11 summary.

How did Nvidia's stock react, and what comes next?

Nvidia shares dropped about 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday and were down 11% over the preceding five trading days, TechCrunch reported Nov. 11, attributing the board-ouster story to the Wall Street Journal. Huang has said he keeps about 60 direct reports and delegates little, and the company has no publicly disclosed succession plan, TechCrunch noted in the same timeline entry. TechCrunch's Nov. 11 timeline also logs a fresh entry noting that Congress plans to move toward a subpoena tied to Huang, though the full scope of that action was not detailed in the available reporting. Nvidia has not issued a public statement addressing the board discussions or the Powell allegation as of Wednesday evening, according to TechCrunch's Nov. 11 report.

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