Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang today resigned from his post. The company named Colette Kress as interim CEO of Nvidia. She is the current executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Huang faced growing calls to resign after his affair with an alleged Chinese spy surfaced. Shares of Nvidia, one of the largest companies in the world, plunged 12 percent in early hour of trading.
Jensen Huang recently admitted to an extramarital affair with the woman involved, Alice Huang, has been accused of being a Chinese intelligence agent. Computer chips, specifically the chips used to produce and run artificial intelligence (AI) systems have become a key front in the United States’ rivalry with China for geopolitical power and influence. The most powerful chips are needed for the most advanced AI, and the US has tried to maintain its edge over China by restricting access to those chips.
Nvidia is the world’s biggest supplier of the high-end chips used for AI and data centres, with some estimates putting its market share over 80 percent. The now multi-trillion-dollar company got its start making chips called graphic processing units (GPUs), used largely for video games. Other companies such as Google and AMD have tried to make chips that can compete with Nvidia for speed and efficiency, however neither has been able to displace Nvidia from its dominance of the AI market. While the Chinese government rejects claims of espionage, Alice Huang has reportedly been under investigation by the US for years.
