NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang has stepped down from his role as the company's CEO. ( Reuters: Evan Vucci )
Jensen Huang, the co-founder of global artificial intelligence giant Nvidia, has resigned as chief executive effective immediately.
The news comes days after the California-based company launched an independent investigation following Mr Huang's acknowledgement that he had an affair with a Chinese business associate.
According to The New York Times, US intelligence determined that the woman — former Megaspeed managing director Alice Huang — was gathering information for China.
Nvidia's board of directors held an emergency meeting that reportedly continued into the early hours of Thursday morning, local time.
Following the meeting, the company released a statement saying Mr Huang had resigned as president, chief executive officer and as a member of the board.
Colette Kress will serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer for NVIDIA. ( Nvidia via Reuters )
The company's Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress, who has worked for NVIDIA since 2013, will serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer until a permanent replacement is found.
“NVIDIA’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years,” Ms Kress said in a statement.
The company thanked Mr Huang for his "immeasurable contributions" to not only NVIDIA but the wider industry.
NVIDIA's new board chair Harvey Jones said he expected "the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption".
Shares of Nvidia, one of the largest companies in the world, plunged 10 per cent in premarket trading following the announcement.
Jensen Huang has become the focus of an independent investigation into an affair he had with a suspected Chinese spy.
The company and Mr Huang are also facing a proposed class action accusing them of defrauding shareholders by concealing Mr Huang's ties with Ms Huang — a Chinese citizen and former executive at the Singapore-based data centre company.
US President Donald Trump earlier this week confirmed the FBI was looking into the affair, and described Mr Huang as a "very honourable man".
The company has since become the top supplier of AI chips at the centre of the global AI boom and US-China technology rivalry.
Mr Huang's departure could leave a leadership vacuum at the roughly $US4 trillion ($5.8 trillion) chipmaker he co-founded and built over more than three decades.
Mr Huang, 63, has no obvious successor and owns about 3.6 per cent of Nvidia's stock.
Asian shares also fell on Thursday as investors kept a nervous eye on what action Nvidia's board would take.
Nvidia stock has shed 24 per cent of its value over the past month, wiping around $US1.4 trillion ($2 trillion) off its market capitalisation.
An image shared by software company Net Thunder on LinkedIn in 2024, which it says shows Megaspeed's Alice Huang sitting alongside Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang at an event in Taiwan. ( Supplied: NetThunder/LinkedIn )
Alice Huang was banned from re-entering Singapore after she left the country in February, Singapore's home affairs ministry has confirmed.
The ministry said Ms Huang, who is a former executive at Nvidia customer Megaspeed, was investigated for possible offences including buying servers that were exported via Singapore to Malaysia without entering the Singapore market.
She was investigated "for suspected involvement in the possible offences in Singapore, given her position as then-CEO, chairperson and one of the key controllers of Megaspeed," the ministry said in a statement. It did not investigate espionage.
But the ministry said there was insufficient evidence to find Ms Huang had committed any offences.
Although the ministry said Ms Huang had provided police with "information which she knew to be inaccurate" during the investigation and had downplayed her role in Megaspeed.
She was issued a warning and barred from re-entering the country.
