Nvidia's board held an emergency closed-door meeting on November 11 to discuss the future of CEO Jensen Huang following reports of two extramarital relationships that raise potential code of conduct violations.
The New York Times reported that Huang had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, 48, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare. This follows an earlier investigation into Huang's reported relationship with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive whom U.S. intelligence identified as a suspected Chinese spy.
Nvidia's code of conduct prohibits personal relationships that could create conflicts of interest. The board hired legal firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz on November 10 to investigate both matters.
The stock market reacted swiftly, with Nvidia shares falling more than 10% within hours of the news, trading at $173.70. On Polymarket, traders placed 88% odds on Huang resigning or being removed by the end of 2026, while Kalshi traders put the odds of his departure by December 1 at 80%.
Under Nvidia's governance structure, the board's 10 independent directors can remove Huang with or without cause by simple majority vote. Huang holds no special voting rights to block such a decision.
Potential Successors Under Consideration
Nvidia has not officially named a successor, but several candidates are being discussed for the role.
Internal candidates include Colette Kress, the company's CFO, who is reportedly the leading choice for an interim position. Ian Buck, a senior AI executive instrumental in developing Nvidia's CUDA ecosystem, is also being considered as a potential long-term successor. Additional internal names include Andrew Bell, Jeff Fisher, Bryan Catanzaro, and co-founder Chris Malachowsky.
External candidates reportedly under consideration include Rene Haas, CEO of Arm; Lisa Su, CEO of AMD; Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud; Matt Garman, CEO of AWS; Tim Cook, Apple's executive chairman; and Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO.
The board's decision will come just days before Nvidia's third quarter earnings report scheduled for November 17.
