NYT: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Had Affair With Direct Report Kimberly Powell
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang had an extramarital affair with Kimberly Powell, the company’s vice president of health care who reports directly to him, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, in a second allegation of personal misconduct that has deepened the crisis around the leader of the world’s most valuable company.
The Times said five people who worked at Nvidia told the newspaper about the relationship, speaking on condition of anonymity. Two of them said Huang, 63, and Powell, 48, were captured on video being affectionate at a hotel in San Jose, California, in March, during an Nvidia conference. The newspaper said it had not seen the video. Both Huang and Powell are married to other people, according to the report.
Nvidia declined to comment on the report. The Times said Huang hung up when its reporter called him for comment.
The report landed after the close of regular trading on Wednesday, and Nvidia’s shares slid in after-hours trading, according to CNBC. The stock had already fallen 5.5 percent on Tuesday, and the company’s market value had dropped to about $4.07 trillion, its lowest since late March.
What the Times reported
The new report is separate from the affair Huang acknowledged last weekend. It describes a relationship with a senior executive inside his own company, rather than with an outside businesswoman, and it raises a different set of questions for Nvidia’s board: whether the chief executive of the world’s most valuable company violated the company’s own rules about workplace relationships.
Nvidia’s corporate code of conduct instructs employees to “avoid situations where our actions create conflict,” including “personal relationships,” and states that the company “promptly investigates reports of misconduct,” according to the Times report.
Powell has spent 18 years at Nvidia building its health care business from the ground up, according to the company and a February profile in Healthcare Brew. She joined Nvidia in 2008 after studying electrical engineering at Northeastern University and working at a medical imaging company. She now leads the company’s health care and life sciences division, which applies Nvidia’s computing technology to drug discovery, medical imaging, surgical robotics, and hospital systems. She reports directly to Huang.
The Times reported that the two were seen together at a San Jose hotel during Nvidia’s March conference. Nvidia’s flagship GTC conference was held in San Jose in March, drawing tens of thousands of attendees. The newspaper said two of its sources described video of the pair being affectionate at the hotel, but it stressed that it had not viewed the footage itself.
Why this report matters more than a personal scandal
The first affair, which Huang admitted on Sunday, involved a woman U.S. intelligence officials believe is a Chinese intelligence asset. That raised national security questions. The second report raises corporate governance questions that boards and investors often treat as more clear-cut: a chief executive in a relationship with a direct report.
Workplace relationships between a chief executive and a subordinate are among the most common reasons boards dismiss chief executives, because they create conflicts of interest, favoritism risks, and legal exposure for the company, even when the relationship is consensual. Nvidia’s own code of conduct explicitly warns against personal relationships that create conflicts.
The report also arrives while Nvidia’s board is already running an independent investigation into Huang. The board said on Sunday that a committee of independent directors would investigate, and on Tuesday it hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to run the inquiry. The investigation is led by Joon H. Kim, a former acting U.S. attorney who joined the firm in October.
So far, the board’s investigation has focused on the first affair and on whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort and whether any proprietary information or U.S. national security was compromised. Nvidia has said it has no evidence of a breach so far. The new report adds a separate line of inquiry the board will now have to address: whether Huang’s conduct toward a senior executive violated company policy.
The affair Huang has already acknowledged
The crisis began with a New York Times report on Oct. 29 that a Chinese businesswoman, Alice Huang, had sought close ties with the Nvidia chief executive to gather information about the company’s technology. The Financial Times later reported that Huang had been in a romantic relationship with her. She is a former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company and a major Nvidia customer. She is not related to Jensen Huang.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Alice Huang was gathering information for Beijing, according to the Times. China has denied the claim, and its foreign ministry called the allegation “unsubstantiated” on Nov. 9. No U.S. authority has published a finding, and no charges have been announced against anyone.
On Sunday, Nov. 8, Huang told employees in an email that he had had an extramarital affair. “I was unfaithful to my wife,” he wrote, without naming the other person. He apologized to his family and to the company and pledged to cooperate with the board’s investigation. On Monday, he returned to Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California, and opened his regular morning meeting with senior executives by addressing the affair and apologizing to staff, CNBC reported, citing people familiar with the meeting.
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The fallout has been swift. Senator Kevin Cramer, a Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, called on Huang to resign on Tuesday, saying the affair with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy had compromised the chief executive. Republican leaders of three House committees have asked Huang to appear for a closed-door briefing about his interactions with Alice Huang. Nvidia also faces a proposed shareholder lawsuit over the affair.
President Donald Trump said on Monday that the FBI is looking into Huang’s affair with the businesswoman. The bureau has not commented publicly.
The Times has also reported that trade records show a Megaspeed affiliate bought at least $4.8 billion worth of advanced AI equipment containing Nvidia chips between June 2024 and February 2026. The Information, citing people familiar with the matter, has alleged that the relationship helped facilitate at least $7.5 billion in Nvidia chip shipments to Chinese firms through a broader network. Those claims have not been independently verified, and Nvidia has said it has no evidence that company secrets were compromised.
The market reaction
Investors have punished Nvidia’s stock as the scandal has widened. Shares fell 5.5 percent on Tuesday, the second straight session of declines tied to the controversy, and the company has shed hundreds of billions of dollars in market value since the first reports emerged. Wall Street has also grown more cautious: Baird slashed its price target on the stock by 60 percent, and other analysts have warned that the leadership crisis could distract management at a moment when the company faces intense competition in artificial intelligence chips.
Nvidia reports third-quarter results on Nov. 17, which will give investors their first detailed look at the company’s finances since the scandal broke. The board’s investigation has no announced end date, and Nvidia has not said whether its findings will be made public.
What happens next
The board’s investigation is now the central question for Nvidia. The directors hired one of the country’s most prominent law firms, and the inquiry’s scope will almost certainly widen to cover the Powell report. Boards in similar situations typically examine whether company policy was violated, whether the executive disclosed the relationship, and whether it affected pay, promotion, or reporting decisions.
Congress is also watching. The closed-door briefing requested by the House committees was already scheduled before the new report, and lawmakers are likely to press Huang on both relationships. Senator Cramer has already said the chief executive should step down, and other lawmakers may follow if the board’s investigation finds policy violations.
For now, Huang remains chief executive. He has apologized to his wife, his family, and his employees, but he has not addressed the new report publicly, and Nvidia has declined to comment on it. The company that builds the chips powering the artificial intelligence boom is now facing a leadership crisis with no clear end in sight.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Kimberly Powell?
Kimberly Powell, 48, is Nvidia’s vice president of health care and life sciences. She joined the company in 2008 and spent 18 years building its health care business, which uses Nvidia’s computing technology for drug discovery, medical imaging, and hospital systems. She reports directly to chief executive Jensen Huang, according to The New York Times.
What did The New York Times report about Huang and Powell?
The Times reported that five people who worked at Nvidia said Huang had an extramarital relationship with Powell. Two of them said the pair were captured on video being affectionate at a San Jose hotel in March, during an Nvidia conference. The newspaper said it had not seen the video, and both Huang and Powell are married to other people, according to the report.
How is this different from the first affair?
The first affair, which Huang acknowledged on Nov. 8, involved Alice Huang, a former executive at the Singapore data center company Megaspeed whom U.S. intelligence officials believe is a Chinese intelligence asset. The new report involves a senior Nvidia executive who reports directly to Huang, raising corporate governance and workplace conduct questions rather than national security questions.
What is Nvidia’s board doing?
A committee of independent directors opened an investigation on Nov. 8, and on Nov. 10 the board hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, led by former acting U.S. attorney Joon H. Kim, to run what it called “a thorough and independent investigation.” Nvidia has said it has no evidence so far that company secrets or national security were compromised.
Sources: The New York Times (via Zubiqo summary); CNBC; Reuters; TalkEsport; Crypto Briefing; Healthcare Brew.
[…] The reports arrived hours after The New York Times reported a second alleged affair involving Huang, this time with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reports directly to him. That report, published Wednesday evening, was the subject of a separate article on this site about the second alleged affair with Kimberly Powell. […]