I hope people understand that the affairs are not the reason he is being fired - NVIDIA has supposedly been skirting the export ban put in place by the previous administration. This was put in place for national security reasons. Whether you agree or disagree with the ban, it exists and Jensen&NVIDIA are in a world of trouble if this comes to light.
From all the reporting I've read, it is hard for me to avoid the conclusion that NVIDIA sold to China despite the export ban. I'd love to be wrong
Not the _only_ reason, sure. However, it's quite common when executives have an affair they will get fired. I think that's just the reality. If you publicly humiliate your family and the business, you're out...
The image of Nvidia advocating for exports of GPUs to china while compromised by an allegedly Chinese agent is the real issue here. Endless congressional hearings on that topic starting in Jan. The Nvidia corp still has to answer for that even when Jensen is out.
It may well be that it's his private life and it doesn't have much to do with things, but it is a contributing factor. The skirting of export bans was the reagent, but the infidelity is the catalyst that is making it much bigger.
CEO is supposed to be a high integrity position despite most tech CEOs trying to pretend that is not the case. If this person cannot be loyal to those closest to him, how can he be loyal to the company or shareholders?
Let’s be real here. Everyone making money out of NVIDIA was more than happy enough to go around the restrictions and see the prices go up due to Chinese demand.
Having these people saying otherwise is pure hypocrisy.
A lot of people in this industry have gotten it into their heads over the last 25 years that if you create enough value, you get to ignore things like "rules", "laws" and "common sense".
Part of me is hopeful after this. Huang did something that was, at the very least, profoundly stupid, and just short of treason at worst. However, I'm also filled with dread, because I know that this means that there will be even more of an effort by founders to make sure they're immune from consequences from boards if they go public. You already see this at Meta and with Zuckerberg.
We need real reforms on corporate governance that make this sort of situation - a board able to control the C-suite - the norm, not the exception.
As though the Board had no idea of this, and are suddenly acting oh gosh this is the first we've heard of the phantom SG revenue! Time for Jensen to go. Nah, not buying it. Many of the board have been w JH since the early 1990s. This is because his reckless disregard for the company and his years-long relationship with a Chinese spy.
Him taking the stance of "we should be allowed to sell all the GPUs to China" was bad enough in itself.
Now that the possibility of him being compromised by an actual Chinese spy AND the possibility of Nvidia actually sanction-busting to ship to China regardless are on the table? Both at the same time, no less?
Yeah, that kind of liability is bonkers. Jensen might be too vital to load him into a cannon and fire him into the sun, but I'm not at all surprised that Nvidia wants him gone from the big post.
> From all the reporting I've read, it is hard for me to avoid the conclusion that NVIDIA sold to China despite the export ban.
I thought this was like, basically an open secret? Like... I'm sure they stayed within the technical letter of the law? Except if any of the laws required them to not be grossly negligent and not be cartoonishly naive. So that they can later argue that they couldn't possibly have known that chips going to South East Asia were being resold to China?
Very much agreed, the second this became clear his position was untenable. He will surely have launched his unicorn by the end of December regardless, I’d be surprised if this had any tangible repercussions outside the divorce court.
Elon Musk has an AI bot generating explicit images without consent, regardless of age, yet nobody's firing him.
While Jensen seems like an egomaniac who deserves what happened to him, there's a part of me that feels some China hawks had fingers in his firing, it must not sit well with them than America's most valuable company is not in the hands of the old guard.
> What changed now compared to 2 years ago to make Trump care?
We all now know that Trump knew about it, that's what has changed. It was fine when this was private, but now his administration is starting to get questions around why his Commerce department punted the initial investigation to DOJ where it ultimately died as the opposition party is about to retake Congress with investigations top of mind.
The midterms seem like the most obvious timing. Trump has a little less power and everyone is starting to plan for what happens after him - jockeying for being able to say they didn't support this and that. If it was only being ignored because Mr Huang could donate a lot of money to Trump's ballroom that deal probably isn't as important now.
For all his faults, I do feel for Jensen. He built this thing from an absolute scratch. He had a lot of luck on the way, from crypto to CUDA. And who can forget his spat with Jobs all those years ago.
Nvidia eventually had a spat with just about any corporation it has ever worked with. Their only partnership that stood the test of time is probably Nintendo.
I have to imagine that Jensen is under an enormous amount of stress right now. I hope whatever he's going through he's got support. This all seems to be happening way too quickly to be just.
Like, maybe him stepping down is the right decision. But it feels like a hit job and something that was pushed through, rather than something that was properly considered as what is actually best for the company.
Absolutely, virtually none of this information is new. The chips being sold to China and the suspicious romantic partners were known at least 2 years ago. Perhaps "confirmation" that the one was a spy is new, but that shouldn't have much of an effect since the stakes were already such that such risks should have been taken seriously without confirmation.
To call it a hit job is absurd. He is smart enough to know his actions could have severe consequences. He took a massive risk on behalf of millions for his own momentary pleasure.
Not a single inch of empathy for his wife and family, nor the misled investors and staff.
You can agree or disagree with his position on exporting to China being good/bad for nVidia or the US. But actively working closely with a company (Megaspeed) where, from a thousand miles away, it was clear that their primary goal was to get around and/or bend US export controls... that's a bad idea. Megaspeed was clearly working for the direct benefit of the Chinese government.
Add onto that having an extramarital affair with the representative of that company? Come on, it's extremely likely she's an agent of China, and if not it's a gigantic business risk.
Then, on top of that, you have to remember that he's married. A divorce results in half of his shares going to his wife, who would then have a grudge, probably not in the best interests of the comapny.
Ah. So you know their relationship? Whether it's an 'open marriage' or not? Whether the wife cheated first, or not? You're of course, in the know, so you can judge, yes?
He could have done a wrong thing. Or the affair could have been perfectly fine with his wife. Or the marriage could have been on the rocks for years, and they both agreed to not divorce, with all the drama and media attention, and just live their own lives.
If it was an open marriage, why would his first statement have been an apology to his wife and family? I don't see any reason to start assuming it was actually fine. In any case the affair becoming public in such a way would still be hurting them - the media attention you're speaking about. Much worse than a divorce, right?
It is as much of a mistake to anthropomorphize billionaires as it is to anthropomorphize LLMs. People with resources greater than nations are .001% human and the rest is closer to a lovecraftian god. Consider that he can shatter markets or send massive trading companies under simply by having an affair. The empathy is misplaced.
I think the external event maybe moved quickly, but I read there was an internal event as well.
I’m sorry but this shows wildly inappropriate decision making. Say what you will about honeypots (I received specialized “warning” early in my career, but I recognize that is abnormal), but we all are forced through training every single year about how relationships at work, especially with imbalanced power dynamics, are inappropriate and should not take place.
I don’t care about the infidelity, but he represents the company at its pinnacle. He had to go.
Such a bizarre take to me. Yes, it's a quick fall.. but can you really trust him after he's been caught having an affair with a supposed Chinese spy, _and_ potentially another one with an employee? There is zero chance any normal business would keep a CEO after this...
Which country? The country of Taiwan where he’s from and where all his products are made? Or the USA whose diva in chief has had a fit about selling said chips to the country who produces all the USA’s stuff?
Some very harsh words being thrown around for Jensen’s very human failings. Try walking in his shoes, or at least having some degree of understanding and empathy.
Try walking in his shoes? He has an easier life than 99% of people lol. People always quick to jump in to defend the shittiest behaviour, maybe have some empathy for his wife?
I think this just confirms that he had knowledge of gpus going to China and the board wants to minimize the damage now. His infidelity does not help but I doubt the board would have ousted him for that
Can't help that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that the China hawk fraction of the government and associated entities (i.e. Anthropic) obviously brought the hammer down on Jensen here, even if he arguably brought about his own downfall with the affair.
My understanding is that NVidia's organisation is very flat and Huang has his fingers in every pie; he's not the hands off type. Moreover there was no succession plan. I get that having an affair with a spy is not great but isn't it risky to replace him now?
I'm going to guess the 2nd affair with a direct report who rose quickly through the ranks is from the board's perspective the more egregious of the two failings.
And: the public only knows what's made it out. Who knows what else has come out in private.
You don't think the board of a listed company care about the CEOs bit on the side is being promoted? That's really not a good look for a company to admit that.
Imagine having to explain that line of reasoning to Congress in four months. "Yes, Senator, we know our CEO was facilitating chip smuggling to China while in a relationship with a Chinese spy, but we figured that it would just be too risky to replace him at this time."
I hope this won't change NVIDIA's refusal to block inference for unsigned and registered open-models in the firmware of modern GPUs. Anthropic and others are pushing hard on this. First the hardware export ban, eventually the software one via hardware-enforced execution controls like IETF hinted at
“Hey Lisa! How’s it going? So ya we just fired your cousin who created our company. We were wondering if we could get on a call with you about replacing him and leaving your rival company? If you could call us back on 1-800-NVDA that would be great.”
is today the best day in over a year to buy NVDA? From a long-term perspective, how much was he the one driving innovation, and can they be something like an Apple who overcame founder's reliance?
I'd like to give some insight into this process. A few days ago, we learned that market disrupters were planning negative news to artificially collapse the AI economy, we investigated it at the time and considered completely outlawing short selling. Here is our investigation: https://grok.com/share/c2hhcmQtMw_e05fb23d-aa67-43e4-a7c1-df...
As you can see, it was not clear that we should completely eliminate short selling.
When the character assassination process began against Jensen (who is the Founder of NVidia; he currently owns around 3% of the stock; his stake is worth around $100 billion) we gave our feedback that this is not newsworthy.
Yesterday, we learned of plans to remove him from his position and passed the law linked above, making this illegal.
We will now begin the process of liquidating and delisting the short seller companies involved. These are some investment banks.
We do not consider any of the recent reporting to be newsworthy or material.
He resigns so he would forfeit much of contractual severance in most cases. A negotiated settlement is likely as part of the resignation and if he’s rehired elsewhere (eg at terafab or tsmc) it will generally terminate ongoing payments, healthcare, access to private aircraft and security.
I have to say, this seems like a ridiculous over-reaction on the part of the board.
I think if you could know the truth, 75% of CEOs in the US probably cheat on their wives. They are not hired to be faithful to their wives, they are hired to increase the stock prices of their companies.
Like sure, if you're a good Christian, it's not good behavior, but ultimately, it's just having sex with someone. I want the guy to make me money and build a great company, I don't care who he has sex with.
It's not about the sex. It's about the judgement shown in cheating with a Chinese spy and a direct report, specifically. It's the lack of trustworthiness shown by someone who is willing to cheat in their marriage (presumably they are then fine lying to their company). And finally it's about exporting gpus to China illegally.
The only reason Jensen is out is because he doesn't pretend AI is an existential threat like Anthropic and OpenAI do to boost their own valuation/moats and to boost the anti-China sentiment for the administration.
Not sure about the people thinking he didn't do much wrong.
The point is that as CEO of a company you have a fiduciary duty to have the best interest of a company in your actions and behavior.
Having sex with your workers and chinese spies is obviously not the kind of behavior that reflects that.
And if companies did not fire their CEOs over such blatant missteps the wrong message would be sent to the whole corporate America.
It sucks because obviously Nvidia would be nowhere without Jensen, and it's not like he killed someone or committed fraud, but the mistakes have been huge none the less.
And don't forget that those are the two cases we know about, but when you see 2 ants in your kitchen there's always more.
And the internal investigation of Nvidia quickly assessed that the issue was bigger and Jensen was more of a liability than an asset.
I think he clearly did something wrong. It just doesn't seem that bad in comparison to the current shit our leaders do weekly. We're in an age of morally corrupt leadership across the board in the United States.
I agree. And to the conspiracy theorists: what is more likely? That an impossibly rich guy who thinks he is the center of the universe does something as entitled as this? Or that there is some shadowy coup going on that just checkmated him? Human nature doesn’t need that much encouragement.
> Jensen Huang was fighting hard to hang onto his role with the company he founded, according to several people briefed on the discussions. But an interim plan for the chief financial officer, Colette Kress, to take over Nvidia was well underway yesterday.
From the NYT live updates.
Ah well, I'm somewhat seeing parallels to the 2023 OpenAI drama, not sure if this is gonna be how things end quite yet.
Let this be a learning experience for everyone here: if you ever get the CEO if a US tech giant, then never f** a Chinese spy! (and never circumvent export bans while you are at it)
Someone of incredible wealth and influence suffering negative outcomes for something wrong that they did?
I'm not familiar with the thing I'm seeing.
Might call my financial advisor and ask him to buy some shares. They'll be lower, and the board has shown it can actually protect the interests of shareholders.
Because he cheated on his wife?? Or what am I missing? If that's the official reason, I don't buy it. I don't think those who can influence this decision give two shits about this type of morality. It's silly on its face. Obviously it's cover for some other agenda. I'm just surprised people buy this silly excuse instead of getting to the bottom of what is really happening.
That he conspired to smuggle NVIDIA GPUs into China to bypass a US embargo working with the Chinese government via a spy (either willingly or via blackmail). Impropriety adds insult to injury - the board have rightly seen that the market will view it more negatively if he stays than if he leaves.
It's only been like a year since the last CEO resigned for viral infidelity.
And that was only with a subordinate, not a subordinate AND with a foreign spy (alleged). Reports say China got billions in chips imported thanks to this operation.
Politicians also drop like flies. The only person impervious to consequences has been Trump. None of his supporters care that he's the devil.
No, it's because he repeatedly lied. 20% of the company's profits were/are coming from selling sanctioned chips to China and he said 0% 0% 0% (in official filings)
The news made it sound like she was a sophisticated person using him as a simpleton, but if anything he was using her to move his products against sanctions.
> NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) Board of Directors announced today that Jensen Huang has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately.
Jensen Huang gone as President, CEO, and a member of the Board of Nvidia, effective immediately.
The Nvidia coup operation has been completed. It is over.
When everyone was scaremongering last month about how AI was going to “destroy humanity” he was the only one talking sense and calling them out on their bullshit
This is clearly retaliation for not falling into line
Yes, he has failings that deserve to be addressed, but the timing of them coming out and the consequences being enforced are the tell here.
These things can be handled in many different ways. In this case they are being used to achieve the goal of replacing Jensen because he wouldn't play their doom games.
I don't think they would care much about the infidelity, but banging a report and a geopolitical enemy is a pretty bad idea overall. I don't think people would have been so surprised if a LockMart C-suite had been voluntold to resign after having an affair with a KGB-linked Soviet woman. And with a direct report as a cherry on top.
Nobody serious believes that warrants his replacement. It will be interesting to eventually find out what's actually going on. If I had to speculate, a combination of his refusal to drink the koolaid wrt any combination of AI doomerism, singularitarian AI cultists, china-hawk warmongering, etc. He was trying his best to sell AI and AI accesories as what it is, a normal technology that doesn't have feelings and will neither exterminate us nor bring about heaven on earth, and apparently basically nobody else involved at this level is ok with that.
Nice to see a slimeball get what he deserved for once. Too many people in power get a free pass lately. Inexcusable conduct and no morals. We deserve better from our leaders. Elon and Trump next please.
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I hope people understand that the affairs are not the reason he is being fired - NVIDIA has supposedly been skirting the export ban put in place by the previous administration. This was put in place for national security reasons. Whether you agree or disagree with the ban, it exists and Jensen&NVIDIA are in a world of trouble if this comes to light.
From all the reporting I've read, it is hard for me to avoid the conclusion that NVIDIA sold to China despite the export ban. I'd love to be wrong
Not the _only_ reason, sure. However, it's quite common when executives have an affair they will get fired. I think that's just the reality. If you publicly humiliate your family and the business, you're out...
That is assuming there is a layer above the executive, which is not necessarily the case.
It is true for anything with a board, of course. But there is no rule mandating boards.
The image of Nvidia advocating for exports of GPUs to china while compromised by an allegedly Chinese agent is the real issue here. Endless congressional hearings on that topic starting in Jan. The Nvidia corp still has to answer for that even when Jensen is out.
It may well be that it's his private life and it doesn't have much to do with things, but it is a contributing factor. The skirting of export bans was the reagent, but the infidelity is the catalyst that is making it much bigger.
CEO is supposed to be a high integrity position despite most tech CEOs trying to pretend that is not the case. If this person cannot be loyal to those closest to him, how can he be loyal to the company or shareholders?
Let’s be real here. Everyone making money out of NVIDIA was more than happy enough to go around the restrictions and see the prices go up due to Chinese demand.
Having these people saying otherwise is pure hypocrisy.
They didn’t sold the chips directly to China, they sold them to Megaspeed and they sold the compute to China.
I agree that this is a more likely explanation, given the AI arms race between the US and China.
I think NVIDIA lose more things by firing Jensen.
What happens if all the money in the system circulating through AI companies turns out to be ill-gotten gains?
The previous and current administration.
This is obviously something that has been postponed for after the midterms.
A lot of people in this industry have gotten it into their heads over the last 25 years that if you create enough value, you get to ignore things like "rules", "laws" and "common sense".
Part of me is hopeful after this. Huang did something that was, at the very least, profoundly stupid, and just short of treason at worst. However, I'm also filled with dread, because I know that this means that there will be even more of an effort by founders to make sure they're immune from consequences from boards if they go public. You already see this at Meta and with Zuckerberg.
We need real reforms on corporate governance that make this sort of situation - a board able to control the C-suite - the norm, not the exception.
As though the Board had no idea of this, and are suddenly acting oh gosh this is the first we've heard of the phantom SG revenue! Time for Jensen to go. Nah, not buying it. Many of the board have been w JH since the early 1990s. This is because his reckless disregard for the company and his years-long relationship with a Chinese spy.
Him taking the stance of "we should be allowed to sell all the GPUs to China" was bad enough in itself.
Now that the possibility of him being compromised by an actual Chinese spy AND the possibility of Nvidia actually sanction-busting to ship to China regardless are on the table? Both at the same time, no less?
Yeah, that kind of liability is bonkers. Jensen might be too vital to load him into a cannon and fire him into the sun, but I'm not at all surprised that Nvidia wants him gone from the big post.
> From all the reporting I've read, it is hard for me to avoid the conclusion that NVIDIA sold to China despite the export ban.
I thought this was like, basically an open secret? Like... I'm sure they stayed within the technical letter of the law? Except if any of the laws required them to not be grossly negligent and not be cartoonishly naive. So that they can later argue that they couldn't possibly have known that chips going to South East Asia were being resold to China?
I just find it weird that trump loses the midterms and suddenly this happens. Might be a coincident but feels very sus.
Very much agreed, the second this became clear his position was untenable. He will surely have launched his unicorn by the end of December regardless, I’d be surprised if this had any tangible repercussions outside the divorce court.
I don't think so.
I think it was the affair with the direct report that did him in.
That's a bigger no-no than selling to spies, especially when the administration knew about it and did nothing.
Elon Musk has an AI bot generating explicit images without consent, regardless of age, yet nobody's firing him.
While Jensen seems like an egomaniac who deserves what happened to him, there's a part of me that feels some China hawks had fingers in his firing, it must not sit well with them than America's most valuable company is not in the hands of the old guard.
Except the administration has known about them skirting it since day 1.
So it’s no longer about national security. What changed now compared to 2 years ago to make Trump care? Did Jenson reduce SpaceX’s allocation?
> What changed now compared to 2 years ago to make Trump care?
We all now know that Trump knew about it, that's what has changed. It was fine when this was private, but now his administration is starting to get questions around why his Commerce department punted the initial investigation to DOJ where it ultimately died as the opposition party is about to retake Congress with investigations top of mind.
The midterms seem like the most obvious timing. Trump has a little less power and everyone is starting to plan for what happens after him - jockeying for being able to say they didn't support this and that. If it was only being ignored because Mr Huang could donate a lot of money to Trump's ballroom that deal probably isn't as important now.
And, there is no spy business. They just want a more compliant CEO. What a *hit show.
For all his faults, I do feel for Jensen. He built this thing from an absolute scratch. He had a lot of luck on the way, from crypto to CUDA. And who can forget his spat with Jobs all those years ago.
This is undoubtedly the most painful professional moment in his career which has been almost entirely Nvidia.
Nvidia eventually had a spat with just about any corporation it has ever worked with. Their only partnership that stood the test of time is probably Nintendo.
I have to imagine that Jensen is under an enormous amount of stress right now. I hope whatever he's going through he's got support. This all seems to be happening way too quickly to be just.
Like, maybe him stepping down is the right decision. But it feels like a hit job and something that was pushed through, rather than something that was properly considered as what is actually best for the company.
He's the chief architect of this. I hope the ones he's hurt along the way have support.
Actions do have consequences and unlike his family, he made those decisions. They also are affect by them despite never having a choice.
Absolutely, virtually none of this information is new. The chips being sold to China and the suspicious romantic partners were known at least 2 years ago. Perhaps "confirmation" that the one was a spy is new, but that shouldn't have much of an effect since the stakes were already such that such risks should have been taken seriously without confirmation.
To call it a hit job is absurd. He is smart enough to know his actions could have severe consequences. He took a massive risk on behalf of millions for his own momentary pleasure.
Not a single inch of empathy for his wife and family, nor the misled investors and staff.
I'm sorry, but a hit job he conducted on himself?
You can agree or disagree with his position on exporting to China being good/bad for nVidia or the US. But actively working closely with a company (Megaspeed) where, from a thousand miles away, it was clear that their primary goal was to get around and/or bend US export controls... that's a bad idea. Megaspeed was clearly working for the direct benefit of the Chinese government.
Add onto that having an extramarital affair with the representative of that company? Come on, it's extremely likely she's an agent of China, and if not it's a gigantic business risk.
Then, on top of that, you have to remember that he's married. A divorce results in half of his shares going to his wife, who would then have a grudge, probably not in the best interests of the comapny.
He cheated on his wife. More than once. Fuck him, let him be stressed.
Who says she's didn't know or even if she cares?
Yes, I'm completely sure his wife never ever cheated on him, lol
Ah. So you know their relationship? Whether it's an 'open marriage' or not? Whether the wife cheated first, or not? You're of course, in the know, so you can judge, yes?
He could have done a wrong thing. Or the affair could have been perfectly fine with his wife. Or the marriage could have been on the rocks for years, and they both agreed to not divorce, with all the drama and media attention, and just live their own lives.
But you know all this is true, or not true.
Yes?
If it was an open marriage, why would his first statement have been an apology to his wife and family? I don't see any reason to start assuming it was actually fine. In any case the affair becoming public in such a way would still be hurting them - the media attention you're speaking about. Much worse than a divorce, right?
he wouldn't have publicly apologized if all of that was "perfectly fine" with his wife
It is as much of a mistake to anthropomorphize billionaires as it is to anthropomorphize LLMs. People with resources greater than nations are .001% human and the rest is closer to a lovecraftian god. Consider that he can shatter markets or send massive trading companies under simply by having an affair. The empathy is misplaced.
I think the external event maybe moved quickly, but I read there was an internal event as well.
I’m sorry but this shows wildly inappropriate decision making. Say what you will about honeypots (I received specialized “warning” early in my career, but I recognize that is abnormal), but we all are forced through training every single year about how relationships at work, especially with imbalanced power dynamics, are inappropriate and should not take place.
I don’t care about the infidelity, but he represents the company at its pinnacle. He had to go.
Hopefully his wife has support. Jensen gets to reap what he sowed.
I think with personal wealth in the billions he'll be just fine.
Such a bizarre take to me. Yes, it's a quick fall.. but can you really trust him after he's been caught having an affair with a supposed Chinese spy, _and_ potentially another one with an employee? There is zero chance any normal business would keep a CEO after this...
Normally this would never come to light, the admin has known about the Chinese agent since 2025. He misstepped politically.
If there were 20 more affairs I would not be surprised.
> I hope whatever he's going through he's got support.
You don't get to cheat on your wife, company and country and get support lmao, what a strange things to say.
Which country? The country of Taiwan where he’s from and where all his products are made? Or the USA whose diva in chief has had a fit about selling said chips to the country who produces all the USA’s stuff?
Some very harsh words being thrown around for Jensen’s very human failings. Try walking in his shoes, or at least having some degree of understanding and empathy.
Try walking in his shoes? He has an easier life than 99% of people lol. People always quick to jump in to defend the shittiest behaviour, maybe have some empathy for his wife?
I'm sure the billionaire will be fine.
If only there was something he could have done to not do it
He put out the hit on himself when he stepped out.
I think this just confirms that he had knowledge of gpus going to China and the board wants to minimize the damage now. His infidelity does not help but I doubt the board would have ousted him for that
Everyone on that board will have had knowledge of GPUs going to China. Everyone on on THIS board has knowledge about GPUs going to China. Jeez.
Can't help that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that the China hawk fraction of the government and associated entities (i.e. Anthropic) obviously brought the hammer down on Jensen here, even if he arguably brought about his own downfall with the affair.
I don't understand. Who's driving this change? The board, the administration, or who?
Given the report that the US gov knew about this for a while, it seems more likely that it's coming from the administration?
NVIDIA without Jensen? That’s a huge risk. The company may be bigger than ever but replacing its visionary won't be easy.
My understanding is that NVidia's organisation is very flat and Huang has his fingers in every pie; he's not the hands off type. Moreover there was no succession plan. I get that having an affair with a spy is not great but isn't it risky to replace him now?
I'm going to guess the 2nd affair with a direct report who rose quickly through the ranks is from the board's perspective the more egregious of the two failings.
And: the public only knows what's made it out. Who knows what else has come out in private.
I think that's a nothing-burger but it's enough to force him out. They probably have more cards in the play. Unfortunately we will never know of them.
Having sex with a report is a very serious no no. There are very valid questions of one's ability to consent when your boss is also your partner.
You don't think the board of a listed company care about the CEOs bit on the side is being promoted? That's really not a good look for a company to admit that.
But the original news was not what sealed the deal, it was the follow up.
Nvidia will be just fine
Imagine having to explain that line of reasoning to Congress in four months. "Yes, Senator, we know our CEO was facilitating chip smuggling to China while in a relationship with a Chinese spy, but we figured that it would just be too risky to replace him at this time."
"an affair with a spy is not great" rather undersells the situation - there could be criminal liability.
What an incredibly embarrassing downfall.
I hope this won't change NVIDIA's refusal to block inference for unsigned and registered open-models in the firmware of modern GPUs. Anthropic and others are pushing hard on this. First the hardware export ban, eventually the software one via hardware-enforced execution controls like IETF hinted at
The obvious succession choice is Lisa Su, but AMD is now almost a trillion dollar company. I can't imagine her actually jumping ship at this point.
“Hey Lisa! How’s it going? So ya we just fired your cousin who created our company. We were wondering if we could get on a call with you about replacing him and leaving your rival company? If you could call us back on 1-800-NVDA that would be great.”
i mean if she puts on a leather jacket she looks just like him lol. evidently they are actually related
is today the best day in over a year to buy NVDA? From a long-term perspective, how much was he the one driving innovation, and can they be something like an Apple who overcame founder's reliance?
the market is reflecting the risk. youre not smarter than the market
I don't know, I just have a feeling he'll be back. Steve Jobs style.
As per our Law 3, the shortselling companies responsible for this will now be liquidated:
https://stateofutopia.com/laws/3/law3.html
I'd like to give some insight into this process. A few days ago, we learned that market disrupters were planning negative news to artificially collapse the AI economy, we investigated it at the time and considered completely outlawing short selling. Here is our investigation: https://grok.com/share/c2hhcmQtMw_e05fb23d-aa67-43e4-a7c1-df...
As you can see, it was not clear that we should completely eliminate short selling.
When the character assassination process began against Jensen (who is the Founder of NVidia; he currently owns around 3% of the stock; his stake is worth around $100 billion) we gave our feedback that this is not newsworthy.
Yesterday, we learned of plans to remove him from his position and passed the law linked above, making this illegal.
We will now begin the process of liquidating and delisting the short seller companies involved. These are some investment banks.
We do not consider any of the recent reporting to be newsworthy or material.
Who of you guys is applying?
What would the severance package be in a situation like this?
He resigns so he would forfeit much of contractual severance in most cases. A negotiated settlement is likely as part of the resignation and if he’s rehired elsewhere (eg at terafab or tsmc) it will generally terminate ongoing payments, healthcare, access to private aircraft and security.
I have to say, this seems like a ridiculous over-reaction on the part of the board.
I think if you could know the truth, 75% of CEOs in the US probably cheat on their wives. They are not hired to be faithful to their wives, they are hired to increase the stock prices of their companies.
Like sure, if you're a good Christian, it's not good behavior, but ultimately, it's just having sex with someone. I want the guy to make me money and build a great company, I don't care who he has sex with.
It's not about the sex. It's about the judgement shown in cheating with a Chinese spy and a direct report, specifically. It's the lack of trustworthiness shown by someone who is willing to cheat in their marriage (presumably they are then fine lying to their company). And finally it's about exporting gpus to China illegally.
This isn't just a case of some extramarital sex.
another poor chinese guy. they will never be trusted in the america system.
The only reason Jensen is out is because he doesn't pretend AI is an existential threat like Anthropic and OpenAI do to boost their own valuation/moats and to boost the anti-China sentiment for the administration.
Curious if the spy stuff will get swept under the rug. US leadership seems kinda tarded hate to say it.
Not sure about the people thinking he didn't do much wrong.
The point is that as CEO of a company you have a fiduciary duty to have the best interest of a company in your actions and behavior.
Having sex with your workers and chinese spies is obviously not the kind of behavior that reflects that.
And if companies did not fire their CEOs over such blatant missteps the wrong message would be sent to the whole corporate America.
It sucks because obviously Nvidia would be nowhere without Jensen, and it's not like he killed someone or committed fraud, but the mistakes have been huge none the less.
And don't forget that those are the two cases we know about, but when you see 2 ants in your kitchen there's always more.
And the internal investigation of Nvidia quickly assessed that the issue was bigger and Jensen was more of a liability than an asset.
I think he clearly did something wrong. It just doesn't seem that bad in comparison to the current shit our leaders do weekly. We're in an age of morally corrupt leadership across the board in the United States.
>or committed fraud
We're just gonna keep shoving the illegal GPU trade with China under the rug I guess.
I agree. And to the conspiracy theorists: what is more likely? That an impossibly rich guy who thinks he is the center of the universe does something as entitled as this? Or that there is some shadowy coup going on that just checkmated him? Human nature doesn’t need that much encouragement.
> committed fraud
The jury is still out on this, re the circular financing mess with AI
You know the industry has concentrated too much power into too few people when one person's midlife crisis can wipe ~$600 billion in market cap
Yeah, just buy a corvette and another leather jacket... sheesh.
> Jensen Huang was fighting hard to hang onto his role with the company he founded, according to several people briefed on the discussions. But an interim plan for the chief financial officer, Colette Kress, to take over Nvidia was well underway yesterday.
From the NYT live updates.
Ah well, I'm somewhat seeing parallels to the 2023 OpenAI drama, not sure if this is gonna be how things end quite yet.
Jensen Huang: I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UURquropEhE
The memeing on r/wallstreetbets is off the chart today. At least we have that...
I’m sure Nvidia will have great leadership to substitute Jensen, but man is this a generational fumble from Jensen.
The king’s crown tumbles. Stock is already down 10% this morning.
I wonder if this will be the catalyst for Nvidia losing the lead
Who ordered the hit? This was coordinated. None of the info was new, it was dwelling for years.
Those are some world-changing, high impact, most consequential genitals right there. Impressive.
At the point, the lesson is to have affairs big and early, so you are invincible to media-coordinated attacks. What a tragedy.
No, the alternative is not to “not having affairs”. Remember, we don’t need evidence to spin a narrative.
I guess no one wants an Emperor, and someone needs to teach the tech lords a lesson after mid-term, let's see how NVIDIA holds up.
I believe Jensen is still the largest individual shareholder for Nvidia.
Waiting to see how market reacts, I am selling my shares.
Dear Jensen, time to start another company.
Jensen might go down as being less like Jobs and more like Weinstein.
Let this be a learning experience for everyone here: if you ever get the CEO if a US tech giant, then never f** a Chinese spy! (and never circumvent export bans while you are at it)
The volume of glee in this thread is alarming.
coup brought to you by anthropic?
Moving fast, I see.
Someone of incredible wealth and influence suffering negative outcomes for something wrong that they did?
I'm not familiar with the thing I'm seeing.
Might call my financial advisor and ask him to buy some shares. They'll be lower, and the board has shown it can actually protect the interests of shareholders.
Guy sleeps with spy
Conspiracy reaction: Something is going on here... obviously not due to sleeping with a spy...
[delayed]
Because he cheated on his wife?? Or what am I missing? If that's the official reason, I don't buy it. I don't think those who can influence this decision give two shits about this type of morality. It's silly on its face. Obviously it's cover for some other agenda. I'm just surprised people buy this silly excuse instead of getting to the bottom of what is really happening.
That he conspired to smuggle NVIDIA GPUs into China to bypass a US embargo working with the Chinese government via a spy (either willingly or via blackmail). Impropriety adds insult to injury - the board have rightly seen that the market will view it more negatively if he stays than if he leaves.
Cheated on his wife with a spy who was using her connection to Jensen to move GPUs into China through Singapore in breach of the export controls.
The cheating is just a bit of humiliation, the damning part is the knowingly circumvention of export controls.
Oh if he knew all of that, then that's what I'm missing, thanks.
> Because he cheated on his wife??
And a lot of other shady things around nvidia, half of it we probably will never know about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H3xQaf7BFI
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-administration-jail-le...
Nvidia bulls are still processing
the impending investigation regarding the sanctions might have more to do with it, to be honest.
It's only been like a year since the last CEO resigned for viral infidelity.
And that was only with a subordinate, not a subordinate AND with a foreign spy (alleged). Reports say China got billions in chips imported thanks to this operation.
Politicians also drop like flies. The only person impervious to consequences has been Trump. None of his supporters care that he's the devil.
No, it's because he repeatedly lied. 20% of the company's profits were/are coming from selling sanctioned chips to China and he said 0% 0% 0% (in official filings)
The news made it sound like she was a sophisticated person using him as a simpleton, but if anything he was using her to move his products against sanctions.
...with an actual spy.
And a subordinate executive. And god knows who else.
But I imagine the billions of dollars in illicit sales is considered a bigger issue.
The board should've: "Fire you? We’ve just spent billions of our market cap educating you to be careful with spies. Why would we fire you?"
allegedly?
> NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) Board of Directors announced today that Jensen Huang has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately.
Jensen Huang gone as President, CEO, and a member of the Board of Nvidia, effective immediately.
The Nvidia coup operation has been completed. It is over.
Who are the insiders that arrange the coup?
Those who were against supporting open weight models and specifically selling Nvidia GPUs into China.
The AI labs do not want any of that and there is one that certainly has never released an open weight model.
You can take a good guess on the sort of people that are also associated with that AI lab.
Yeah, that could be the case.
You say this like it’s a bad thing.
Who is incentivized to mount such a coup, I wonder....? Could it be the nation accused of inserting a spy into his life?
I don't like conspiracy theories but this doesn't smell right, something's off
He's lucky to have the right to resign, just about any other exec would be dead to rights for termination with cause for sleeping with a subordinate.
Are you serious? He had an affair not only with a direct report, but with a Chinese spy
When everyone was scaremongering last month about how AI was going to “destroy humanity” he was the only one talking sense and calling them out on their bullshit
This is clearly retaliation for not falling into line
Yes, he has failings that deserve to be addressed, but the timing of them coming out and the consequences being enforced are the tell here.
These things can be handled in many different ways. In this case they are being used to achieve the goal of replacing Jensen because he wouldn't play their doom games.
It just smells like infidelity gone world wide news, and a little illegal GPU trade with china.
I don't think they would care much about the infidelity, but banging a report and a geopolitical enemy is a pretty bad idea overall. I don't think people would have been so surprised if a LockMart C-suite had been voluntold to resign after having an affair with a KGB-linked Soviet woman. And with a direct report as a cherry on top.
Sounds like you like them very much.
Right. Because men's genitals have never made them do stupid things and caused consequences to those actions.
Nobody serious believes that warrants his replacement. It will be interesting to eventually find out what's actually going on. If I had to speculate, a combination of his refusal to drink the koolaid wrt any combination of AI doomerism, singularitarian AI cultists, china-hawk warmongering, etc. He was trying his best to sell AI and AI accesories as what it is, a normal technology that doesn't have feelings and will neither exterminate us nor bring about heaven on earth, and apparently basically nobody else involved at this level is ok with that.
My read is that people in US gov knew about this for a while (cf https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/10/us/politics/trump-china-t...), but Trump protected him (also note Jensen's ballroom donation in that context!).
Now, post-midterm, Trump's political power has waned considerably, so the knives came out.
Nice to see a slimeball get what he deserved for once. Too many people in power get a free pass lately. Inexcusable conduct and no morals. We deserve better from our leaders. Elon and Trump next please.
Why do you care that much about other’s people sex life.
I care about powerful people tainting our culture with their selfish bullshit.
This man lied to the entire US economy and cheated multiple times. Stop excusing his conduct.