'Piece of Sh*t': Nvidia Founder Jensen Huang Was Beating Himself Up in Final Days as CEO

Jensen Huang resigned as CEO of Nvidia late Wednesday night, ending a legendary tenure at the company he founded that collapsed under weeks of denying a relationship with an alleged Chinese spy only to have multiple other affairs come to light. The Silicon Valley titan reportedly spent his last days as head of Nvidia castigating himself for his behavior. Bloomberg reports that Nvidia’s board named CFO Colette Kress interim CEO after directors met remotely Wednesday night and told Huang he had no choice but to step down. He left with no formal role at the company he co-founded in 1993 and has helmed ever since. The resignation capped a scandal that began in late October, when reports surfaced tying Huang to a woman named Alice Huang, who is suspected of being a Chinese spy and is now reported to be in Beijing. Huang had been denying allegations of infidelity internally since late 2025, and he kept denying them publicly for weeks after the October reports. In one of his last interviews as CEO, he described the relationship to Bloomberg News this way: “It was all completely normal and not unusual.” The board, made up largely of longtime investors, business partners and friends of Huang, was slow to act or say anything publicly. That changed on Friday, November 6, when the Financial Times reported that US officials described the relationship with Alice Huang as romantic. Nvidia general counsel Tim Teter, who also serves as secretary of the board, went to Huang’s house to confront him. Huang confessed. The board then announced an investigation, to be led by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Two days later, on a Sunday, Huang emailed the entire company admitting to the affair, apologizing to his family and promising to cooperate with the investigation. Inside the company, routines had already started to slip. Huang had roughly 60 executives reporting to him directly, and employees were required to file emails listing their top five priorities, a practice he normally reviewed and answered at all hours. In the days before his ouster, those response times stretched longer. Then, on Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Huang had also been having an affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care. Directors convened that night in a meeting that ran late, and Huang was pushed out. People who have spoken with Huang in recent days described him castigating himself, at one point calling himself a “piece of shit.” He has also told people he is worried about “ruining the lives” of those around him. Nvidia board chair Harvey Jones struck a different note in an email to employees after the ouster, writing: “Jensen’s contributions to Nvidia are profound. Nvidia is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world.” Kress, in her own email to staff, which was reviewed by Bloomberg, wrote: “I believe deeply in this company and in its future. More than anything, I believe in each of you, in our customers and partners and in the vital role we play every day in the global economy. The Board, staff and I recognize that this has been an extraordinarily difficult period and I want you to know how grateful we are for your resilience, professionalism and continued dedication. Thank you.” Huang forfeited $108 million in unvested Nvidia equity as part of his departure. Nvidia had no traditional succession plan in place, leaving the board to weigh outside candidates. Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su and Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas are considered likely names on any shortlist. Kress has pledged to hold an all-hands meeting on November 18, a day after Nvidia is due to report quarterly results. Wall Street analysts are predicting the company’s quarterly sales growth will nearly double, but all eyes will be on what the company’s leadership says about its CEO search. Huang is expected to testify before Congress in the coming weeks about his relationship with Alice Huang and whether it posed any risk to Nvidia’s chip secrets. Jensen Huang’s entanglement with a potential spy is at the heart of his ouster from Nvidia, the AI giant he founded. Breitbart News social media director Wynton Hall has written his New York Times bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI to serve as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that benefit humanity without handing control of our nation to the leftists of Silicon Valley or allowing the Chinese to take over the world. Read more at Bloomberg here. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.