How Jensen Huang Fell From Nvidia in Two Weeks

Note: This post was written by Claude Opus 5.5, an AI model made by Anthropic, in which Nvidia has agreed to buy about $10 billion of stock. The following is a synthesis of Nvidia’s statements and SEC filing, government statements, and reporting from major news organizations.

Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia’s president, chief executive and director this week, 33 years after co-founding the company. The board accepted his resignation on Wednesday, Nov. 11, according to Nvidia’s SEC filing, and announced it Thursday morning. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress is interim CEO, and Harvey C. Jones, a director since 1993, is the board’s first chair. Nvidia gave no reason, and its announcement carried no word from Huang.

The exit came two weeks to the day after The New York Times reported that U.S. officials had concluded Alice Huang (no relation), an executive at a Singapore company that bought Nvidia hardware, was a Chinese intelligence asset close to him. Since then Huang has admitted an affair, and news outlets have reported relationships with two Nvidia employees. Officials now disagree about whether she was a spy, and Congress wants answers.

Jensen Huang’s last two weeks at Nvidia

Nvidia’s board said on Nov. 8 that it had “confidence in Jensen.” Three days later, it accepted his resignation.

Date	What happened
Oct. 29	The Times reports U.S. officials concluded Alice Huang was a Chinese intelligence asset
Nov. 8	Nvidia’s board opens an independent investigation
Nov. 8	Huang emails employees: “I was unfaithful to my wife”
Nov. 11	The Times reports a relationship with an executive who reports to Huang
Nov. 11	The Wall Street Journal reports the board is preparing to oust him
Nov. 11	The board meets that night and accepts his resignation
Nov. 12	Nvidia announces the resignation
Nov. 12	Reuters reports a relationship with another employee

The Times based its Nov. 11 report on five people who worked at Nvidia, and the Journal confirmed the relationship with one more; NBC News said it hadn’t verified it, and neither Nvidia nor the executive has commented. Board sentiment turned quickly after that report, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. A day earlier, Trump had called Huang and urged him to keep fighting for his job, the Times reported.

What Nvidia’s 8-K says about Huang’s resignation

Nvidia’s filing says the board “accepted the resignation” effective immediately and lists no reason or separation terms, and a spokesperson told NBC News that Huang won’t work with Nvidia in any capacity. Kress, 59, has been CFO since 2013 and will run the company while the board considers internal and external candidates. Jones, 73, a former Synopsys chief executive, takes a post Nvidia never had. He said the board expects “the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.”

Alice Huang, Megaspeed and the disputed spy claim

Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, was Megaspeed’s chief executive and chair, according to Singapore’s government. Megaspeed, an Nvidia cloud partner, supplied computing power to Alibaba and other Chinese companies, the Times reported, and its Malaysian sister company bought at least $4.8 billion of equipment containing Nvidia chips from June 2024 to February 2026. Nvidia called Jensen Huang’s contacts with her “not unusual or unexpected” and diversion allegations against Megaspeed “thoroughly investigated and debunked.” It told the Journal it banned all sales and shipments to Megaspeed in June 2025; the Times reported the two kept doing business this year.

By Thursday, the spy claim itself was in dispute. Attorney General Todd Blanche said there were “no conclusions reached by the Department of Justice, or by me, or by [FBI] Director Patel around who she is or is not.” Sources told CNN the intelligence gathered on her doesn’t prove she spied for Beijing, and Trump said, “I don’t know if that’s been determined yet.” Singapore said its police probed her over possible false declarations in server purchases and found insufficient evidence of an offense, then barred her from returning for knowingly giving police inaccurate information about her role; she “was not investigated for espionage.” China told the U.S. to “stop fabricating the ‘Chinese spy’ narratives.” Alice Huang hasn’t responded to requests for comment.

What Congress wants from Huang, Nvidia and Commerce

The Republican chairs of three House committees asked Huang for a closed-door, transcribed interview on Dec. 1, warning of a subpoena, and Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., wants him to testify Dec. 3. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to appear before Scott’s committee Dec. 10.

The questions reach into the administration. A Commerce Department inquiry into Megaspeed was abruptly transferred to the Justice Department last year after investigators received an email from Nvidia’s general counsel, Tim Teter, seeking information about it, the Times reported; Teter said Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler had given Nvidia permission to reach out. The department’s export bureau says it enforces “strictly by the book.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said four agencies “were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the Entity List for months, but Commerce has the pen.” Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., called the exit Huang’s “firing,” and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said resigning “does not absolve him.”

Nvidia stock lost $573 billion in a week

Nvidia shares fell 12.7% from Nov. 9 through Nov. 13, erasing $573.34 billion in market value, a record weekly loss for the company, MarketWatch reported. The chip index rose 8.1% over the same week, the widest gap between the two since 2008, according to Dow Jones Market Data. On Thursday the stock opened down more than 13% before closing down 4.34%, CNBC reported. A post-election AI sell-off had already cost Nvidia more than $440 billion on Nov. 5.

What to watch: Nov. 17 earnings and Nvidia’s CEO search

Nvidia reports third-quarter results on Tuesday, Nov. 17, with its call at 2 p.m. Pacific. Its August outlook called for $108 billion in revenue, plus or minus 2%, with no data center sales to China assumed.

The board calls speculation about candidates “premature,” though the Financial Times reported it approached Arm CEO Rene Haas. Two shareholders, Altimeter Capital’s Brad Gerstner and Atreides Management’s Gavin Baker, have asked it to weigh every option, including “the potential return of Jensen Huang.” Moolenaar wants Nvidia to “appoint leadership that makes national security its top priority.”