Aside from suspected Chinese spy, Jensen Huang had affair with direct NVIDIA report
NVIDIA chief executive Jensen Huang had an affair with a senior executive who reports to him, The New York Times reported. NVIDIA’s code of conduct opens with a letter from Huang himself and lists personal relationships as a potential conflict of interest.
Five sources within the chipmaker confirmed to the Times that the executive in question was Kimberly Powell, VP of healthcare at NVIDIA. At the company’s GTC conference in San Jose, California, in March, Powell — who joined the company in 2008 — presented the company’s work on AI in drug discovery and patient care.
During that conference, a bystander reportedly filmed Huang and Powell being affectionate at a nearby hotel. People briefed on the incident told the Times that Huang’s security team offered the bystander a nondisclosure agreement. The newspaper said it had not seen the recording.
«I don’t think you should be talking to me directly,» Huang told the Times when asked about Powell by phone, before hanging up. NVIDIA declined to issue a statement to the newspaper, and Powell did not immediately respond to its request for comment.
Zoom in: Beyond Jensen Huang: Spy cases involving missiles, moles and fatal romances
NVIDIA’s board weighs Huang’s future
The report comes days after Huang admitted to an extra-marital affair in a message to the staff. The NVIDIA board launched an independent investigation after the Times reported that US intelligence officials had named a Chinese business executive, Alice Huang, as an intelligence asset for Beijing. China has denied the espionage allegation.
Huang has been summoned by the Republican heads of three House committees to give a private briefing on his relationship with Alice Huang and how NVIDIA protects itself from espionage.
Read more: China weighs letting ByteDance and Alibaba buy new Nvidia chips
Reuters reported separately that NVIDIA’s board was meeting late on Wednesday to decide whether to remove Huang, who co-founded the company in 1993.
NVIDIA shares fell more than 8% in extended trading after The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to oust him.
