HONG KONG, NOVEMBER 12
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned Thursday after his extramarital affair raised national security concerns.
The company named Colette Kress as interim CEO. She is the current executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Huang faced growing calls to resign after his affair with an alleged Chinese spy. Late Wednesday, media reports said Huang had another extramarital affair with an Nvidia employee who reports to him.
The board of directors said Thursday it also named its first-ever chairman, Harvey C. Jones, an entrepreneur and venture investor.
Shares of Nvidia, one of the largest companies in the world, plunged 10% in premarket trading Thursday.
Nvidia's board had gathered to discuss Huang's future after revelations that he was having an affair with a former Megaspeed executive suspected of being a Chinese government agent. The New York Times reported Wednesday that Huang also had an affair with an Nvidia executive who reported to him. The Associated Press could not independently confirm those reports.
In its first statement since the scandal broke, Singapore-headquartered Megaspeed International said Thursday that it takes its obligation to comply with U.S. export control laws "extremely seriously."
Details about Huang's affair with the former Megaspeed executive are unclear.
"Megaspeed is committed to working constructively and transparently with the U.S. government," said the statement signed by its chairman and CEO, Tan Yong Pong, who also goes by James Tan.
Nvidia has said it had "no reason to believe" that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, but that its inquiry would examine all available information.
The New York Times reported that the woman with whom Huang had an affair was Alice Huang, who also goes by the name Huang Le, and was a top executive at Megaspeed. The company prominently touts a partnership with Nvidia on its website. The two are not related.
Last month, the Times reported that U.S. intelligence agencies discovered Nvidia's Huang had developed a close relationship with Alice Huang - and determined she was feeding information directly to Beijing. On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the FBI was investigating.
Megaspeed faced claims last year that it was illicitly shipping advanced Nvidia computer chips into China, but in December said there was "no evidence" of such exports. Singapore has also said it is investigating such allegations.
China has denied that it engaged in an attempt to ensnare Huang, who heads one of the world's most valuable companies. Nvidia has become a leader in making chips that power AI and Huang has lobbied Washington to loosen limits on sales of Nvidia chips to China. In January, he won Trump's approval for selling to China its H200 chips.
Megaspeed said Thursday that it has cooperated with the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which handles enforcement of national security restrictions on exports of technology, and was ready to "cooperate fully with any other relevant U.S. government authority."
It said it has hired a U.S. law firm to handle a "comprehensive census" of its computer chips and to verify its export controls.
"Megaspeed welcomes appropriate government scrutiny and is committed to demonstrating through concrete actions that it operates responsibly, transparently, and in accordance with applicable U.S. laws," it said.
Apart from questions over national security, Megaspeed's finances also have drawn attention. Its total assets soared roughly 90-fold from late 2023 to 2024, to almost US$3 billion, according to Singapore corporate records.
Revenue surged to over US$294 million in 2024 from none in 2023.