The board planned to meet as soon as Wednesday to decide Huang’s future, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ. The move follows a company investigation into Huang’s affair with Alice Huang. She’s an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data company and major Nvidia customer. U.S. intelligence officials believe she works for China’s intelligence services. Huang admitted the affair in a letter to staff on Sunday and apologized. The WSJ also reported that he had a second affair with Kimberly Powell, who runs Nvidia’s healthcare business. Nvidia shares fell about 8% in after-hours trading.
It isn’t clear who would take over. Huang has roughly 60 direct reports. He has said he doesn’t believe in succession planning. According to the WSJ, Nvidia’s own proxy statement warns that the company is “highly dependent on the services of our longstanding executive team” and that failing to plan for succession could “hinder our strategic planning, execution, and long-term success.”
The scandal has been building for more than a year, as a WSJ timeline shows. The New York Times first reported the business link between the two in October 2025. Megaspeed was one of several companies building AI data centers in Southeast Asia with Nvidia chips. It was suspected of sending some of those chips to China. The Commerce Department has been investigating it since late 2024. The Justice Department is now leading several investigations involving Alice Huang.
The fallout reaches Washington too. Earlier this week, President Trump stood by Huang and called him an “honorable man.” Trump approved Nvidia chip sales to China despite security concerns. He also adopted many of Huang’s policy views. Lawmakers are now looking hard at those decisions. Huang, 63, co-founded Nvidia and is its largest shareholder, with about 3.6% of the company. Questions about Nvidia’s lack of a backup leader have been growing all week, as Axios reported.
