Jensen Huang’s scandal-fueled ouster exposes enterprise doubts about AI

Jensen Huang, former CEO of Nvidia, giving keynote address at Nvidia GTC Berlin in October.Sean Gallup via Getty Images

Nvidia’s famed founder and CEO Jensen Huang has resigned after extramarital affairs with a Chinese spy and a member of his top staff. The AI chip giant’s board made vice president and CFO Colette Kress interim CEO.

Huang’s exit, disclosed by the board on Thursday, likely won’t affect Nvidia’s position as the leading producer of AI chips, but it exposes structural risks in AI spending and valuations, and could be the turning point for skeptical enterprises to back away from AI.

“The AI industry has lost one of its most credible public advocates at a time when skepticism about AI is growing,” said Kashyap Kompella, founder of RPA2AI Research. “Huang was very effective at connecting technological innovation to a broader economic narrative. His departure creates a vacuum just as the industry needs to strengthen its social license to operate.”

The 63-year-old Huang was co-founder and former leader of what became the world’s most valuable company during the AI boom. He resigned following furor over his relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data center company MegaSpeed International, in 2023 and 2024.

Over that period, MegaSpeed and companies connected to it acquired billions of dollars of AI equipment containing Nvidia chips. U.S. intelligence also briefed President Donald Trump in October 2025 regarding concerns that Alice Huang was a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security.

Jensen Huang, who is not related to Alice Huang, served as the charismatic face of AI, and his quick departure comes at a rocky time for the AI business. After the November 3 U.S. midterm elections, Nvidia’s stock and that of other AI data center-related stocks declined sharply.

Since then, AI stocks have rebounded. However, the recent debacle still enveloping Nvidia is raising doubts about what will become of the AI chip giant.