The Nvidia Board of Directors met to decide whether to keep Jensen Huang At the head of the company, in the same week that The New York Times published that the manager would have had a relationship with another executive of the company. Information about that meeting was brought forward by The Wall Street Journal, and the actions immediately reacted in post-closure operations.
The designated executive is Kimberly Powell, vice president of the Nvidia health area, according to the report of the New York newspaper, which cites five people who worked in the company. Neither Powell nor Huang nor the company have confirmed the relationship.
The Times text holds that Huang, 63, and Powell, 48, are married to other people, and places the couple in a San Jose hotel during the Nvidia GTC conference in March, where they would have been seen with affectionate attitude. Three people informed of the episode said that Huang’s security team removed the person who recorded the scene and offered him a confidentiality agreement. The newspaper clarified that he had not seen that video.
Nvidia declined to make a statement and Powell did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A former employee told CNBC that rumors about that relationship had been around for years and that Powell has been working with the company since 2008.
From the mail to the research surrounding Jensen Huang
The report on Powell appeared three days after Huang wrote to the template. In that message, sent on Sunday, November 8, he apologized to his family and his colleagues and acknowledged that he had been unfaithful, without identifying the other person.
The Council’s statement that same day pointed in another direction: it announced that a committee of independent directors, with the support of the Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz would oversee an investigation, claiming that he had no reason to believe that the company’s national security or secrets had been compromised. He also expressed his trust in Huang.
That statement only referred to a possible foreign intelligence effort and did not clarify whether the investigation would reach the accusations about Powell. What the Council did say is that it will review all available information.
Alice Huang’s shadow on the case
The admission of infidelity has been linked in the press with Alice Huang, former executive of Megaspeed, a client of Nvidia. Jensen Huang has not publicly confirmed that it is that person.
The Times further reported that US intelligence officials concluded that Alice Huang spied on for China. Those accusations have not been established in a court and China rejected them. Neither Huang nor Nvidia have been formally accused of anything.
Actions, Congress and the open question
NVIDIA shares fell more than 3% in operations after the closing of November 11, after the report on the possible departure of the manager was known.
Three presidents of committees of the House of Representatives asked Huang for an information session behind closed doors for November 18 about their interactions with Alice Huang and the company’s safeguards against espionage. The letter does not attribute any irregularities to it.
In a phone call collected in the Times report, Huang would have replied “I dont think you should be talking to me directly” before hanging up.
With the Council discussing its continuity and the ongoing investigation, the question that remains is the real scope of the process: if it is limited to the foreign intelligence front or if it ends up including the accusations about Powell and Huang’s future in command of the company.
