Jensen Huang, the Nvidia chief already under a board investigation over his affair with a woman US intelligence says is a Chinese spy, also had an extramarital relationship with an Nvidia executive who reports to him, according to five people who worked at the company and spoke to The New York Times.
According to the people, the executive is Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care. Huang, 63, and Powell, 48, are both married to other people, and the relationship has been discussed inside the company, the five said.
Two of the people told the paper that the pair were caught on video being affectionate at a San Jose hotel in March, during GTC, Nvidia's annual developer conference, while company executives were meeting nearby. Three people briefed on the incident said a bystander filmed the moment on their phone, and that Huang's security spotted the bystander, sequestered them and offered them a nondisclosure agreement. The Times says it has not seen the video.
When the paper reached Huang by phone on Wednesday and asked him about Powell, he replied: "I don't think you should be talking to me directly." Then he hung up. Nvidia declined to provide a statement.
Nvidia's own code of conduct tells employees to avoid situations where their actions "create conflict," and it lists "personal relationships" among them. The company also says it "promptly investigates reports of misconduct." Many large corporations bar managers from relationships with subordinates.
Shares were displeased after hours:
While the odds of Huang resigning spiked on Polymarket.
Powell joined Nvidia in 2008 to bring its GPUs into medical imaging instruments. According to her LinkedIn, she was promoted to senior director of AI business development in 2016, and by late 2017 she was vice president of health care, overseeing programs that apply Nvidia's chips to higher education and health care. She speaks for the company at technology conferences around the world; at GTC in March she gave a talk on AI-driven breakthroughs in health care and biology, with slides that used cartoon versions of Huang.
As we reported on Oct. 29, US officials identified Alice Huang (no relation), a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, as a Chinese intelligence asset after Huang grew close to her; Beijing has denied the espionage claims. On Nov. 8 Huang admitted the affair in a memo to staff: "I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did," he wrote.
That same day Nvidia's board opened an independent investigation, which the Times says is being led by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. The board said it had "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised."
Meanwhile, the Republican chairs of the House Foreign Affairs, China Select and Intelligence committees have asked Huang for a closed-door briefing on Nov. 18 about his dealings with Alice Huang, and gave him until Nov. 11 to answer. Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast said he is prepared to subpoena Huang if he doesn't respond by Wednesday, the same day the Powell report landed.
Investors have already been rattled: Nvidia shares slid on Nov. 9 after the board's probe was announced. Nvidia reports third-quarter earnings on Nov. 17, the day before Huang's requested appearance on Capitol Hill.
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