Nvidia is facing one of the biggest crises in its 33-year history, with founder Jensen Huang stepping down as CEO on Thursday following reports of multiple extramarital affairs, including one with an alleged Chinese spy. CFO Colette Kress is currently taking the helm as Nvidia’s interim CEO.
The relationship between Hwang and Alice Hwang is much deeper than an affair. That’s because she’s in the midst of a massive effort to accumulate AI chips across Southeast Asia thanks to her ties to Nvidia customer Megaspeed. Megaspeed is also under investigation for possibly diverting restricted Nvidia chips into the hands of Chinese companies.
According to the New York Times, Jensen and Alice Huang’s relationship dates back to 2023. It was a “tumultuous” time for Nvidia, Jensen Huang told CNBC in an interview at the time. Nvidia was in the process of redesigning some of its chips to comply with the first in a series of strict export restrictions imposed by the U.S. government that would restrict sales to China.
“Regulations are going to be fine. We’re going to get through this,” Huang told CNBC from Nvidia’s headquarters in February 2023. The interview was for a documentary about how Huang founded Nvidia and built it into the core of the AI boom.
On the same day, CNBC also interviewed Kimberly Powell, NVIDIA’s vice president of healthcare, who reportedly had an affair with Jensen Huang.
This isn’t the first time Nvidia faces an uncertain future. The company was founded in 1993 and within a few years was on the brink of bankruptcy.
“Every company makes mistakes, and I make a lot of them,” Huang said in a 2023 interview. “And some of them endanger the company.”
During the early months of the AI boom, Nvidia stood on the precipice of historic growth after OpenAI announced ChatGPT in November 2022. Jensen Huang told CNBC that he hopes to continue running the company for “30 or 40 years” “as long as I feel like I’m truly contributing to the company.”
Less than four years later, as Jensen Huang steps down and the chipmaker enters its next important chapter, we’re looking back at interviews with Nvidia’s co-founder and other company executives. Watch the video for the full story.
WATCH: Nvidia’s rise, reinvention, and uncertain future without Jensen Huang
