Nvidia board reportedly weighs removing Jensen Huang after a second alleged affair, days after he admitted infidelity tied to a national-security probe

Documented: On November 8, 2026, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang told employees he had been unfaithful to his wife and that there was “no excuse” for what he did. The same day the board said it had opened an independent investigation into reporting that he had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort, and that it had “no reason to believe” national security or company secrets were compromised. It later retained Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, with former federal prosecutor Joon Kim leading the work. Huang said he would cooperate and remained committed to leading the company. A proposed shareholder class action was filed the next day, alleging investors were misled about his relationship with a customer executive.

Claimed, and not confirmed by Nvidia, Huang, or the other woman: The New York Times reported on November 11, citing five people who worked at the company, that Huang also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reports to him. Both are married to other people, the paper said. Two of those people said the pair were filmed being affectionate at a San Jose hotel during the company’s March developer conference; the Times said it had not seen the video. Three people briefed on the episode said Huang’s security sequestered the bystander and offered a nondisclosure agreement. When the Times reached Huang by phone and asked about Powell, he said, “I don’t think you should be talking to me directly,” and hung up. Nvidia declined to comment to multiple outlets.

Also reported, not confirmed as a decision: The Wall Street Journal reported the same day, citing people familiar with the matter, that the board was preparing to remove Huang and could meet as soon as that day. Reuters, Newsweek, and others carried the Journal’s account and noted they could not independently verify it. No official announcement of a removal has been confirmed in the reporting reviewed here. After-hours trading was described as sharply lower, with some accounts putting the drop near 8 percent.

The earlier relationship is the one Huang has acknowledged in substance, without naming the woman. The New York Times and other outlets have identified her as Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, a large Nvidia customer that has faced U.S. scrutiny over whether advanced chips were diverted toward China. U.S. officials concluded she was a Chinese intelligence asset, according to the Times. China has called that allegation a smear. Reuters has said it could not independently verify the intelligence finding. Megaspeed and Nvidia have previously denied smuggling claims. House Republicans have sought a closed-door briefing from Huang. President Trump has said he asked Huang whether he knew she was a spy and that he believed Huang’s denial.

Speculated, not established: that a second workplace relationship, if confirmed, would by itself force removal, or that the governance shock proves the AI investment cycle is about to break. What is on the record is narrower and more concrete. Nvidia’s own code of conduct lists personal relationships among situations that can create conflicts, and says the company investigates reports of misconduct. The company has no board chair; lead independent director Stephen Neal has been described as heading the investigative committee. Huang has run Nvidia since he co-founded it in 1993, and the firm’s valuation and customer financing have made his personal conduct a market and national-security question at once. Powell, who joined in 2008 and built the healthcare business, has not publicly confirmed or denied the Times account.

The epistemic status of the story is therefore split. The admission, the board probe, the law firm, the initial expression of confidence, China’s denial, and the shareholder suit are documented. The Powell relationship, the video, the NDA, and any decision to oust Huang remain claims attributed to unnamed people by the Times and the Journal. The spy conclusion is an official assessment as reported by major newspapers, not a charge that has been tested in public.