Nvidia appointed longtime Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO after founder Jensen Huang resigned as president, CEO and board member effective Thursday, November 12, 2026, following reports of two extramarital affairs. One involved Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a former senior Megaspeed International executive whom U.S. intelligence reportedly suspected of passing information to Beijing; the other reportedly involved an Nvidia employee who reported to Huang. The Associated Press said it could not independently confirm the reports, while existing reporting said Huang acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife. Nvidia said it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised, but its inquiry would examine all available information. The board also named Harvey C. Jones, an entrepreneur and venture investor, as its first-ever chairman. Existing reporting said former acting U.S. attorney Joon H. Kim and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz were hired for the review. Nvidia shares fell 10% in premarket trading, 14% at Thursday's opening bell and 6.5% to $162.31 by the close after an intraday decline of as much as 14.3%; more than $500 billion was reportedly erased from U.S. stocks in a single minute, and Nvidia fell to third among the world's most valuable companies. Megaspeed said it takes U.S. export-control compliance extremely seriously, has cooperated with the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security and hired a U.S. law firm to conduct a comprehensive census of its chips and verify its controls. The company has faced allegations of illicitly shipping advanced Nvidia chips to China, which it denied last December; Singapore is investigating, while China has denied trying to ensnare Huang. Megaspeed's assets rose roughly 90-fold to almost $3 billion in 2024, while revenue reached more than $294 million from zero in 2023. Crypto and technology figures including Changpeng Zhao, Erik Voorhees, Anthony Pompliano, Tim Sweeney and Aravind Srinivas criticized the decision or defended Huang's role in open AI. Claims that his departure was part of an anti-open-source conspiracy remain unproven. Nvidia joined the Open Secure AI Alliance in July, backed a letter defending open weights and agreed in September to acquire Hugging Face for about $12.9 billion, subject to regulatory clearance and an expected first-half 2027 closing. The board is searching for a permanent CEO inside and outside the company, while Kress retains the CFO role. Nvidia's next scheduled earnings report is November 17, and Huang is due to face a closed-door joint briefing by Republican lawmakers on November 18 concerning security protocols and his interactions with the alleged spy. Elon Musk said hiring Huang would be an honor, while President Donald Trump expressed support for him. Huang had lobbied Washington to loosen restrictions on Nvidia chip sales to China and won Trump's approval in January to sell the H200 there.