The Jensen Huang scandal, from an alleged spy to a shock resignation: a timeline

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Nov 14, 2026

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The Jensen Huang scandal, from an alleged spy to a shock resignation: a timeline

For years, Jensen Huang avoided the controversies that routinely engulf other figures of the AI era, such as OpenAI's Sam Altman or SpaceXAI's Elon Musk. That changed in November 2026. Nvidia's co-founder and now former CEO, 63, has admitted that he cheated on his wife of 40 years — and the fallout has rapidly grown from a personal matter into a corporate and national security crisis.

Within days, the man who co-founded Nvidia 33 years ago was out as its chief executive, Congress had opened an investigation into how the Trump administration handled Nvidia's chip sales to China, and Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had been asked to testify before the Senate Banking Committee. Here is what is known so far.

The alleged spy and the chip deals that raised alarms

U.S. officials believe that one of Huang's likely romantic interests, Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, is a Chinese spy who has been feeding information back to Beijing. Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen, is of no relation to Jensen Huang.

The company at the center of those concerns is Megaspeed, a Singapore-based AI infrastructure firm that reportedly purchased $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over the last two years. The United States and Singapore had both previously investigated Megaspeed over suspicions that it was illegally sharing chips with China. According to The New York Times, the Justice Department has since taken over the federal investigation into the company.

A second affair becomes public, then a third

The story took a sudden turn midweek. Citing five people who worked at Nvidia, the Times reported that Huang had also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company's vice president of healthcare, who reports directly to him. Nvidia, Huang, and Powell have not confirmed the report. When a Times reporter reached Huang, he reportedly said, "I don't think you should be talking to me directly," before hanging up.

By early Thursday morning, Huang was no longer CEO of the company he had built alongside his co-founders more than three decades ago. Then, on Thursday afternoon, Reuters dropped another bombshell: according to its report, Huang had yet another extramarital affair, this time with an unnamed Nvidia employee.

The resignation, and doubts about his interim successor

Nvidia named CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO after Huang stepped down. Subsequent reporting has underscored how abrupt the end was. Bloomberg described Huang as looking "broken and shattered, his legendary energy depleted" by the time he surrendered the role, uttering phrases like "whatever" and "I don't care."

The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, reported that Huang had not been confident in Kress. He is said to have described her as "a deer in the headlights" during a presentation this summer, and to have characterized her as someone who could not help him steer strategy or decision-making — a pointed assessment of the executive now running the company on an interim basis.

Democrats open an investigation; a Senate testimony request follows

On November 12, in a scathing letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Representative Richard Neal (D-MA) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced an investigation into how the Trump administration handled Nvidia's chip sales to China, particularly after Trump was briefed on Huang's relationship with a purported Chinese spy.

According to the letter, although Lutnick and President Trump were reportedly briefed on this intelligence, the administration did not appear to acknowledge the evident national security threat. On the contrary, the lawmakers wrote: despite reportedly learning of Huang's compromising relationship last fall, President Trump granted Nvidia permission to sell its advanced H200 AI chips to China in December 2025 in exchange for a cut of the export sales.

That same evening, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) requested that Huang and Lutnick both testify before the Senate Banking Committee. "The American people deserve answers," Scott wrote on X.

Why this reaches far beyond one executive's personal life

The political ferocity of the response reflects the setting. The United States and China are embroiled in a fierce technological arms race to build the most advanced AI infrastructure — a contest that could shape each country's economic future, military prowess, and capacity for innovation.

Nvidia sits at the heart of that contest as one of the world's largest makers of AI chips, which are essential for accelerating AI development. But as an American company, Nvidia faces government restrictions on the sale of its most powerful chips to Chinese entities. Against that backdrop, a CEO's compromising relationship with a suspected intelligence operative quickly became a matter of congressional investigation, a Senate testimony request, and renewed scrutiny of Nvidia's China ambitions.

The key moments so far

November 12, 2026: Huang resigns; CFO Colette Kress is named interim CEO.

November 12, 2026: Reuters reports a third alleged affair, with another unnamed Nvidia employee.

November 12, 2026: Democratic lawmakers launch an investigation into the administration's handling of Nvidia's chip sales to China, and Senator Tim Scott asks Huang and Howard Lutnick to testify before the Senate Banking Committee.

November 13, 2026: Bloomberg reports Huang appeared "broken and shattered" in his final hours as CEO; The Wall Street Journal reports he had been critical of Kress.

Source: TechCrunch, https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/13/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huangs-affair-with-alleged-chinese-spy-a-timeline/