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Nvidia's board is meeting to decide whether to oust CEO Jensen Huang, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter, as the world's dominant supplier of AI chips grapples with reports of two extramarital affairs involving its longtime leader.
The meeting marks a sharp shift from Sunday, when Nvidia's board expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team. Under Nvidia's bylaws, Huang can be removed "with or without cause" by a majority vote of directors. Nvidia has 11 directors and considers all but Huang independent.
Nvidia's stock slid more than 8% in extended trading after the Wall Street Journal first reported that the company was preparing to fire Huang. If those losses hold, Nvidia will have lost about $600 billion in market value since the board announced its investigation into his relationship with a businesswoman called Alice Huang alleged to be a Chinese spy.
Revelations that US intelligence was probing Alice Huang for facilitating shipments of Nvidia chips to Chinese firms set off a series of events: Wall Street began raising questions about Nvidia's governance and Jensen Huang's personal conduct, the company's board launched an internal investigation and hired outside counsel, while lawmakers began to push for tighter curbs on chip exports to China.
Huang's potential departure would leave a leadership vacuum at the roughly $4 trillion chipmaker he co-founded and built over more than three decades to become the top supplier of chips at the center of the global AI boom and US-China technology rivalry.
Huang, 63, has no obvious successor and owns about 3.6% of Nvidia's stock. He also has dozens of direct reports, underscoring the tight control he maintains over the company.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Nvidia's board has been working with an outside firm to identify potential replacements for Huang, citing a person familiar with the situation.
The New York Times reported that Huang had also had an extramarital affair with a company executive who reported to him. The relationship was with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare, the New York Times said, citing five people who worked at the company.