Jensen Huang’s future as Nvidia’s chief executive was hanging by a thread Wednesday night, with the chipmaking giant’s board weighing whether to remove its billionaire founder following revelations of a second alleged extramarital affair, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Directors were poised to meet as soon as late Wednesday to discuss whether Huang, 63, should remain in charge, according to the Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter.
Nvidia’s stock was down 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday, after clawing back some of its recent losses earlier in the day.
Huang, 63, led Nvidia — which he famously cofounded in 1993 in a Denny’s in San Jose, Calif. — to become the world’s top chipmaker and one of the driving forces of the AI revolution.
His ouster would send shockwaves through Silicon Valley and beyond — and mark a sharp reversal for Nvidia’s board. It publicly backed him just days ago as it launched an independent investigation into his affair with a Chinese businesswoman suspected of working for Beijing’s intelligence services.
The boardroom turmoil came amid fresh allegations that Huang had an affair with Kimberly Powell, 48, Nvidia’s vice president of health care — an exec who reports to him, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
Powell joined the Silicon Valley giant in 2008 to help bring its graphics-processing technology into medical imaging equipment. She rose through Nvidia’s business development ranks, becoming a senior director in 2016 before being named vice president of health care by late 2017.
“Jen-Hsun is named as one of America’s top CEOs by Glassdoor Survey! It’s a awesome place to work, come join us!” she gushed in a June 2016 post on X, using a variation of Huang’s first name.
The pair were acting lovey-dovey at a San Jose, Calif., hotel during the company’s annual developer conference in March, the Times reported.
A bystander filmed the encounter before being sequestered by Huang’s security team and offered a nondisclosure agreement, according to the newspaper, which said it did not view the recording.
Nvidia’s code of conduct warns employees against conflicts of interest involving personal relationships.
When the Times contacted Huang about Powell on Wednesday, he replied, “I don’t think you should be talking to me directly,” before hanging up.
Here’s the latest on the Nvidia CEO’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy:
Powell’s online activity indicates she is married with two children. She did not immediately answer a request for comment.
Xiaoyin Qu of AgentSky.dev, who is also an angel investor, expects a potential Huang departure to cause a short-term shock but sees little reason for it to undermine AI demand.
“Long term, I don’t think there would be a very big impact. A short-term shock is normal,” she told The Post on Wednesday.
“He shouldn’t cheat on his wife. But to go from him cheating on his wife to saying the AI bubble is going to burst — that doesn’t make logical sense,” Qu added.
The other woman at the center of Huang’s troubles is Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese business executive with ties to Megaspeed International — a Singapore-based Nvidia customer that has come under scrutiny over its dealings with China.
Jensen Huang admitted his affair with her on Sunday, and sought to carry on as normal on Monday and Tuesday.
“I take full responsibility for what I did and the hurt I caused, and I accept the criticism that comes with it,” he told employees Sunday. “I am committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America’s national security.”
US intelligence agencies reportedly assessed that Alice Huang, no relation to the Nvidia exec, was working for China’s Ministry of State Security, Beijing’s spy agency.
US officials believe she was recruited to collect information about Jensen Huang and potentially influence Nvidia’s lobbying over American restrictions on advanced chip exports to China, according to the Gray Lady and the Financial Times.
The intelligence findings have not been made public, and the available reporting does not establish that Huang knowingly assisted Chinese intelligence.
Alice Huang was photographed alongside him at business and social events in Taiwan and California dating back to at least 2024. She also made repeated trips to the US and was photographed at Nvidia’s headquarters during a company conference in 2025.
The Chinese businesswoman was managing director of Megaspeed, a cloud-computing company that has purchased substantial quantities of Nvidia’s advanced processors.
Megaspeed’s reported assets ballooned from approximately $33 million in 2023 to $3 billion the following year, according to Reuters, which reviewed corporate records.
Megaspeed came under federal scrutiny over whether Chinese customers were gaining access to restricted Nvidia computing power through the Singapore-based operation.
The Times reported in October 2025 that Commerce Department officials were investigating the company.
Nvidia said its compliance review had found no evidence of improper chip diversions and maintained that visits to Megaspeed’s facilities were consistent with a legitimate cloud-computing operation.
The FBI is now investigating the Nvidia exec’s relationship with Alice Huang, President Trump said earlier this week.
Nvidia did not answer a request for comment.
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