Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang is facing a new allegation that he had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company's vice president of healthcare and a direct report. The New York Times reported the allegation on Wednesday, Nov. 11, citing five people who worked at Nvidia. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report.
According to the Times, two of its sources described video showing Huang and Powell being affectionate at a San Jose, California, hotel during an Nvidia conference in March. Investing.com reported that Powell did not immediately respond to inquiries. Nvidia did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
In a separate report Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal said Nvidia's board was preparing to remove Huang as CEO and could meet as early as that day to decide his future. Nvidia had yet to announce a leadership change at the time of the report. Reuters reported that Nvidia shares fell about 8% in after-hours trading.
The latest allegation follows Huang's Nov. 8 email to employees in which he acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife and apologized to his family and colleagues. He did not name anyone in the email. In earlier reporting, the Times identified business executive Alice Huang as the woman involved and said U.S. intelligence had determined she was gathering information for Beijing. China's Foreign Ministry rejected the espionage allegations, according to the Associated Press.
Nvidia's board announced an independent investigation on Nov. 8 into whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. The board said at the time it had no reason to believe that U.S. national security or company secrets had been compromised. On Tuesday, independent directors said they had retained former acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim and his law firm to conduct the inquiry. Huang said he would cooperate.
