NVIDIA CEO Jensen Hwang speaks to reporters and answers questions during a brief press conference outside a Korean barbecue restaurant in Seoul, South Korea, June 5, 2026.
Chris John | Null Photo | Getty Images
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Nvidia Shares plunged 13% on Thursday, pushing the company’s market capitalization below $4 trillion after Jensen Huang announced he would step down as the chipmaker’s CEO and board with immediate effect.
Nvidia said in a statement Thursday that Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO until a new leader is appointed. Harvey C. Jones, Synopsys’ former CEO, will become the company’s first chairman of the board.
On Sunday, Hwang admitted to having an affair. According to the Financial Times, the CEO is romantically involved with Alice Huang, an executive at cloud company Megaspeed, who U.S. intelligence officials believe is a Chinese spy.
The New York Times on Wednesday reported that Huang had another affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare. According to the paper, Mr. Powell will report to Mr. Huang.
Nvidia stock price over the past 5 days.
Before Huang’s resignation, several Wall Street analysts told CNBC that given how important Huang has been to Nvidia’s success, his departure could cause the stock to drop 20%. Nvidia stock has already fallen more than 20% in the last month.
Bernstein cut his price target on Nvidia stock in half from $400 to $200 on Thursday.
Stacey Rasgon, a senior analyst at Bernstein, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday that Hwang’s alleged affair with a direct report meant it was “much harder for the board to keep him in his job.”
Mr. Huang co-founded the company in 1993 and was a central figure in NVIDIA’s rise, playing a pivotal role in transforming the company from a gaming hardware player to a company at the center of the artificial intelligence boom.
Rasgon said it’s unclear who will be the “visionary person” to lead Nvidia into the future as its new CEO.
“Jensen is Nvidia, right? He’s a visionary. The reason they’re in the position they are today is because he made a decision 10 years ago,” Rasgon said. “Who is the right person right now to make decisions for the next 10 years? It’s not intuitive to know who that will be.”
Earlier, U.S. lawmakers called for Huang’s resignation, further increasing pressure on the CEO and the company.
Richard Reil, chief investment officer at Questar Capital Partners, said Nvidia’s lack of a succession plan makes the company’s stock “uninvestable.”
“NVIDIA doesn’t have that talent, so either they keep Mr. Jensen, or he’s probably taken before a Congressional board for months and months and is exposed to explanations and all sorts of cross-examination,” Leil told CNBC’s “Access Middle East.”
“Otherwise, they would have to move away from him, and it would just make the stock uninvestable. So it doesn’t mean the AI industry can’t invest, but it certainly prevents Nvidia from investing.”
