He built the most important company of the AI age and became one of the richest people on the planet. Now Jensen Huang, the leather-jacketed boss of chip giant Nvidia, is gone – brought down by a scandal involving a suspected Chinese spy.
Nvidia announced on Thursday that Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and board member, effective immediately. Chief financial officer Colette Kress has been appointed interim CEO, and Harvey C. Jones becomes the company’s first-ever chair of the board, according to Nvidia’s own statement.
How the scandal unfolded
- Sunday: Huang publicly admitted being unfaithful to his wife and apologised to his family and staff. Nvidia’s board announced an investigation into reports he had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort.
- Monday and Tuesday: Nvidia shares fell 4.3% and then a further 5.5%, wiping around $430 billion off the company’s value, according to The Register.
- Wednesday: The New York Times reported a second extramarital relationship, with an Nvidia vice president who reported to him.
- Thursday: Huang was out.
Nvidia’s board has said it had “no reason to believe” that national security or company secrets were compromised, but said its inquiry would look at all available information. China has dismissed the spy claims as a smear.
Why one man mattered so much
Huang, 63, co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and ran it for 33 years. Under him, it came to control an estimated 90% of the market for the powerful chips used in AI data centres, according to Fortune. Nvidia had no chief operating officer, and Huang had around 60 people reporting directly to him.
“Nvidia’s leadership crisis is a stress test for the AI boom,” Stephanie Balaouras of research firm Forrester told The Register.
The Irish angle
Ireland has bet big on the tech and AI economy, from the data centres around Dublin to the multinationals that employ tens of thousands of people here. Nvidia’s chips power much of that AI build-out. And in a twist of timing, Huang’s exit landed on the same week EU leaders gathered in Dublin for their first-ever summit dedicated to artificial intelligence.
If you have a pension or investment fund that tracks big global stock markets, there’s a good chance it owns Nvidia shares – it became one of the world’s most valuable companies. Big swings in its share price ripple through those funds.
What happens next
Nvidia’s board is searching for a permanent CEO and is considering both internal and external candidates. Huang is still the company’s largest individual shareholder. All eyes now turn to Nvidia’s next earnings call, which The Register says “just became the most important in the company’s history”.
Sources: NVIDIA, The Register, Al Jazeera, Fortune.
Main image: Mariia Berezovsky / Unsplash
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