Timeline
Nvidia board approaches Arm chief Rene Haas about succeeding Huang, FT reports
Nvidia's board has approached Arm chief executive Rene Haas about succeeding Jensen Huang, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Haas is one of several candidates under consideration, and the FT said there was "no guarantee he will be offered the job or accept it". Reuters said it could not independently verify the report. Arm declined to comment; Nvidia did not immediately respond to Reuters. Huang resigned on 12 November, and finance chief Colette Kress is interim chief executive. Haas spent seven years at Nvidia before joining Arm in 2013. Arm's US-listed shares were down more than 5% after the report. Photo: Rosiestep / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reuters: Huang also had relationship with second Nvidia employee
Jensen Huang, who resigned as Nvidia chief executive on Thursday, had an intimate relationship with a second Nvidia employee, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. The agency is not naming her and said attempts to reach her were unsuccessful. The relationship is separate from those with Alice Huang, whom US intelligence is said to suspect of being a Chinese spy, and Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice-president of health care. Nvidia declined to comment. Huang and a board representative did not respond to requests for comment. Huang admitted to an affair in a statement on 8 November without naming anyone. Colette Kress is interim chief executive.
Jensen Huang resigned as chief executive of Nvidia this week. He misled the company's general counsel and other senior leaders about his relationship with Alice Huang, Reuters reported on 13 November. Alice Huang is a former executive of the Singapore-based Nvidia customer Megaspeed. US intelligence agencies reportedly suspect her of gathering information for Beijing. Reuters cited two people familiar with the matter and internal correspondence it had reviewed. According to the agency, Jensen Huang told colleagues in two messages in October that his dealings with her were standard business with a customer.
The report adds to the pressure on Nvidia. It is the leading supplier of chips used to build artificial intelligence systems. Its chief financial officer now runs it on an interim basis. The report also adds to the pressure on the Trump administration. Congress is examining its handling of chip export controls. Senior US officials told CNBC that President Donald Trump does not plan to raise the case with Xi Jinping. He travels to Shenzhen for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on 18 and 19 November.
What the latest report alleges
According to Reuters, the leaders who were misled included general counsel Tim Teter and chief marketing officer Alison Wagonfeld. Press inquiries drew attention to his links with Megaspeed and Alice Huang in autumn 2025 and again in October 2026. On both occasions Jensen Huang described their interactions as appropriate, the people said. Reuters said it had reviewed only the October 2026 messages. The two Huangs are not related.
The agency also reported on a 2025 New York Times article about his public meetings with Alice Huang. Afterwards, Jensen Huang discussed taking legal action against the newspaper. No lawsuit was filed, and a Times spokesperson said the paper had received no legal demand. Reuters said photographs it had verified showed the pair together in the US, China and elsewhere from December 2023 onwards. It is not clear when the relationship became intimate.
Teter did not respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Jensen Huang and Nvidia declined to comment. Reuters said it had not independently verified whether Alice Huang worked for the Chinese government. In an interview with Bloomberg on 29 October, Jensen Huang said the US government had not told him about its suspicions.
Four days from apology to resignation
On Sunday 8 November, Jensen Huang admitted in a message to staff that he had been unfaithful to his wife. "My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry," he wrote, according to ABC News. He did not name Alice Huang. The same day, Nvidia's board announced an independent investigation. It followed reports that he had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. The board said it had "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised". On 10 November, the independent directors said they had hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to run the review.
On 11 November, the New York Times reported that Jensen Huang had had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell. She is an Nvidia vice-president who reported directly to him. Reuters later reported a relationship with a second Nvidia employee. Jensen Huang has not commented publicly on either report.
In a filing dated 12 November, Nvidia said he had stepped down immediately as president, chief executive and board member. He had spent 33 years in charge of the company he co-founded in 1993. Colette Kress, the chief financial officer, was named interim chief executive and will keep her finance role. Harvey C. Jones became the board's first chair. "The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team," Jones said. The board is searching for a permanent successor. It will consider internal and external candidates.
Reuters reported that Nvidia's shares have fallen more than 30 per cent since their closing high on 6 October. That has wiped out more than $1.8tn in market value. The company and its former chief executive also face a proposed shareholder class action.
Jensen Huang presenting RTX Blackwell GPUs at the Nvidia keynote at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Pronoia / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
Megaspeed and the Singapore inquiry
CNBC reports that Megaspeed was spun off from a Chinese gaming company. In less than three years, it became Nvidia's largest customer in South-east Asia. Citing the New York Times, CNBC says Megaspeed has bought more than $4.8bn of Nvidia chips since June 2024. Corporate records reported by The Standard show it was incorporated in 2015 as 7Road International. It was renamed Megaspeed International in March 2023. Alice Huang was its managing director for eight months in 2023. US concerns centre on whether Megaspeed helped restricted Nvidia chips reach China. The company denies wrongdoing.
On 12 November, Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs published a detailed account of its investigation. Police had investigated Alice Huang, a Hong Kong resident. They did so because of her former roles as Megaspeed's chief executive, chair and a key controller. They seized her passport on 24 June 2025. In February 2026 they found insufficient evidence that she had committed offences relating to the declarations under investigation. They did conclude that she had knowingly given inaccurate information to play down her role. She received a stern warning, left Singapore on 26 February and is barred from returning. The ministry said she "was not investigated for espionage". Investigations into Megaspeed and six other individuals are continuing. Singapore also said it had received limited help from US authorities on a related line of inquiry.
China's foreign ministry has called the spying allegation "unsubstantiated" and "smears against China". On 12 November, Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department had not yet reached a conclusion on whether Alice Huang is a spy. That is according to Reuters reporting carried by ABC News (Australia). Bloomberg has reported that she is living in Beijing.
Questions for the administration
The case has focused attention on Washington's chip policy. Jensen Huang argued for years that export restrictions were accelerating China's AI industry. In December 2025, Trump allowed Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chips to China. Jensen Huang was also a close ally of the president and travelled with him to China earlier this year. The Washington Post has reported that Nvidia committed $25m to Trump's White House ballroom project.
The New York Times has reported that Trump was briefed about a year ago on the suspected espionage effort and took no action. Trump has said Jensen Huang told him he did not know Alice Huang was a spy. Trump said he believed him. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has blamed the Commerce Department for failing to keep advanced chips out of China's reach, NBC News reported. Reuters has reported that the administration has not added any Chinese companies to the trade blacklist since October 2025.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to testify. "Secretary Lutnick has proactively agreed to appear voluntarily before the Banking Committee to address their questions," a spokesperson said. Senator Elizabeth Warren said: "Secretary Howard Lutnick and Under-Secretary Jeffrey Kessler must explain why they have not closed export control loopholes."
What happens next
Nvidia reports third-quarter results on 17 November. These are its first earnings since the leadership change. The next day Trump arrives in Shenzhen for APEC. The White House says he plans a three-way meeting with Xi and Vladimir Putin. "The situation with Nvidia should not really have any bearing on the trip," one US official told CNBC. Another said: "I don't expect the president to raise it. The Alice Huang issue." The officials said the economic focus would be on implementing the existing trade agreement.
In Congress, the Republican chairs of the House foreign affairs, China select and intelligence committees have made a request. They want Jensen Huang and Teter to give closed-door transcribed interviews on 1 and 2 December. "There are clear national security concerns that need to be addressed immediately," they wrote. Brian Mast chairs the foreign affairs committee. He has said Jensen Huang agreed to brief lawmakers. The date and format are still being negotiated. Senator Tim Scott chairs the Senate Banking Committee. He has asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress. Kessler is also due to testify at a hearing on 3 December.
Taken together, these dates mean an interim leadership team must reassure investors. At the same time, Congress is looking into its former chief executive and the administration's export controls. The outcome of Nvidia's internal investigation is likely to shape how far the scrutiny goes. So is whether the Justice Department reaches a view on Alice Huang.
Featured image: NVIDIA Headquarters by Coolcaesar, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
