Nvidia’s board was scheduled to hold urgent talks Wednesday about Jensen Huang’s future as CEO, the Financial Times reported. The talks were set for three days after directors publicly backed the AI chipmaker’s founder while launching an independent investigation.
The FT cited people familiar with the matter. Earlier Wednesday, The New York Times reported, citing five people who had worked at Nvidia, that Huang had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company’s vice president of health care, who reports to him.
Bloomberg reported that Nvidia shares were down 9% in extended trading at 5:30 p.m. ET Wednesday. The FT described discussions planned about Huang’s future, not a decision to remove him.
Separately, President Donald Trump said Nov. 9 that the FBI was looking into the situation involving Huang and a woman alleged to be a Chinese government agent, the Associated Press reported. China has denied the espionage allegations.
"I know the FBI is looking into it in terms of something else, and I think that he'll be in good shape," Trump said at a White House briefing, the AP reported.
The Board's Separate Investigation
The FBI involvement Trump described is separate from the investigation commissioned by Nvidia’s directors. In its Nov. 8 announcement, the company said a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, would examine reports that Huang had been targeted by a foreign-intelligence effort.
In the announcement, the board said it had "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised" and expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team. This was the board’s stated position when it launched the review, not a finding from a completed investigation.
On Nov. 10, the independent directors said they had retained Joon H. Kim, a former acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the investigation announced two days earlier.
In a Nov. 8 message to employees, Huang acknowledged infidelity and pledged to cooperate fully with the board’s investigation. The message came before Wednesday’s report about Powell.
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