- Jensen Huang has relinquished his CEO and board roles at Nvidia after admitting to a romantic affair with a suspected Chinese spy.
- Nvidia fell by double-digit percentage points during pre-market trading as the news broke.
Nvidia has been all over the headlines this week, all for the wrong reasons. The scandalous romantic escapades of its CEO, Jensen Huang, have even spilled into the crypto market, thanks to the historical correlation between tech stocks and Bitcoin (BTC) as well as most altcoins sensitive to their shifts.
On Thursday, Huang reportedly resigned as Nvidia’s CEO. He also stepped down from the company’s board.
Collette Kress, Nvidia’s Chief Financial Officer, is serving as interim CEO during the transition. The company’s board has yet to announce Huang’s permanent replacement, as it’s still weighing potential candidates. Nonetheless, it has already named Harvey Jones, a managing partner at Square Wave Ventures, as its first chair.
Market Reaction to Jensen Huang’s Resignation as Nvidia CEO
Bitcoin and the broader crypto market appear unfazed by the breaking news, despite their knee-jerk reaction to Huang’s admission of a romantic affair with Alice Huang (Huang Le), a top executive at Megaspeed suspected of being China’s state-sanctioned spy. Meanwhile, Nvidia’s pre-market shares fell by double-digit percentage points on the event.
However, Bitcoin will likely follow Nvidia’s market trajectory once the market digests the latest developments.
The Nvidia Probe
Investigators are still establishing whether their relationship led to leakage of sensitive company and customer information, including information related to Nvidia’s government contracts. Furthermore, they are probing whether Alice leveraged her connection with Huang to circumvent international sanctions on the sale of Nvidia’s powerful AI (artificial intelligence) chips to China.
China’s Foreign Ministry, however, has vehemently denied accusations that it has orchestrated a honeypot scheme targeting the now-former Nvidia CEO. It called the stories “groundless.”
Megaspeed’s Official Statement
On the other hand, Megaspeed, the Singapore-based cloud computing company dragged into the controversy, has committed to cooperating with US authorities in the ongoing investigation. In its first statement about the Huang affair, it said it takes its obligation to comply with US export control laws “extremely seriously.”
Alice was Megaspeed’s managing director in 2023 and a controlling shareholder. Company insiders even referred to her as their de facto boss, underscoring her major influence or control over the enterprise.
Before joining Megaspeed, Alice notably worked at the Chinese firm Shanghai Hexi Investment Co. from 2015 to 2017. Authorities reportedly discovered her scheme through electronic surveillance and tracks of her chip-smuggling operations.
