Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns effective immediately amid spy scandal

OK, I want to bring you some breaking news just coming in. Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive officer of the AI tech company NVIDIA. Shares in the company sank over the course of this week after it emerged that Huang had had an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. NVIDIA, of course, one of the most valuable companies in the world, estimated to be worth around $4 trillion. dollars It makes chips, which are crucial for the artificial intelligence industry. Let's go straight to Kristen Salumi. She joins us on the phone now to discuss this breaking news. Kristen, there was a lot of pressure on Jensen Huang in the last few days. So no surprise, really, that he has resigned. No, but nevertheless, a shock that is. Thank As markets here in the United States bracing for what will come next? NVIDIA, of course, being this powerhouse company, just this morning the board of directors announcing that Jensen Wang has indeed resigned as president and CEO of the company, effective immediately. you. At this stage, it's not clear what the succession pattern will be. We've only just received the news release. It was, as you say, anticipated. Let's go back and just, you know, talk about how we got here. It was just Sunday that Jensen admitted to having an affair with Alice Wang, that alleged spy and former executive of a Singapore-based NVIDIA customer. Thank you. And since then, the board announced that it would do this independent probe Thank And Jensen, of course, leaves a big hole to fill. He's led NVIDIA since founding it back in 1993. Thank It's gone from this tiny company to, as you said, a trillion-dollar company. But already this week, we've seen trillions lost because of this news. you. So really just shocking. Shocking, even if not unexpected news this morning as the markets are about to get underway. you. Right. Kristen, you may not have seen this flash just in the last few minutes. They've announced who the interim CEO will be. Her name is Colette Kress. She has agreed to serve as interim CEO. That's according to the board. She had already been the company's current executive vice president and chief financial officer. A statement here from the board of directors, Harvey Jones, saying Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position. As I said, that's coming from the board of directors in a statement. Harvey Jones, the news there, just to remind you, if you're just coming, just joining us, Jensen Huang has resigned as CEO of the tech giant NVIDIA, and the company board has announced that Colette Kress will act as the interim NVIDIA CEO. So how crucial was it that they announced this sort of news, that they have someone Waiting in line to take over as interim CEO, given how crucial this company is to the markets. Well, this company provides these essential GPUs, these. Thank Chips that are essential to create AI data centers and they did not want to have any doubt about their stability going forward. So it was very important for them to announce this interim CEO. As you say, this news just coming out now. So we're all just catching up you. the markets, as I said, about to open. And NVIDIA reports its third quarter earnings results next weeks so that is something on the horizon as well. Thank NVIDIA is such a huge portion of the AI business and the markets here in the United States that they really wanted to project this calm and... you the shareholders because really so so many other stocks are also dependent on NVIDIA. much. When you think about the big tech companies who are in the process of building their data centers and they need investors in order to do this, when NVIDIA is at risk, all of them are at risk. Yeah. You mentioned that U.S. stocks are due to open pretty soon. I'm just looking at the U.S. stock snapshot. Wall Street said to open lower after the CEO of Nvidia steps down. I guess it was pretty important for the board to announce this move before the stock market opened for the day because we've seen stocks in the firm plummet for days now. Kristen, particularly after we had more revelations in the last 24 hours with the New York Times reporting that Huang had had a second affair with an executive at his own company. Just give us some context as to why this sort of information seems to have caused so much instability. Well, remember that Jensen Wang has a very close relationship with President Donald Trump. The woman he allegedly had an affair with is accused of being a spy for China, the United States' primary rival in the AI field. And Wang had advocated for policies to allow NVIDIA to sell these sensitive data chips to China. So... Now it's being questioned whether or not that was a smart move, how much influence did this woman have over that decision, over him, and over what was his, how did that play out with the president? All of these questions now are being asked. And to what extent do you think this is going to allay this news, this announcement that he has stepped down and the fact that the current chief financial officer, Colette Kress, is going to fill in as interim chief executive? To what extent do you think that's going to allay market fears? Because, you know, as we've been reporting, markets are due to open soon. NVIDIA shares are expected to be down again and they are down in pre-market trading, I believe. Thank you, Dave. So do you think this sort of news is going to allay some of those investor concerns? Right now, I'm trying to look at on my phone the futures markets. They were down, but they weren't drastically down. It looks like they're in a slightly better position. I think this, you know, before the market, the analysts always urge calm and say that The importance of AI will prevail and that it is important to stay calm. You know, and certainly the futures we saw were down, but not within a couple percentage points. If anyone is just joining us, I think it's worth recapping some of the news that we have. We are just breaking here. The chief executive of NVIDIA, Jensen Huang, has resigned. He's been under a lot of pressure over the course of the last week. He's resigned as CEO of the tech giant NVIDIA. Announcement from the company's board is that he will be replaced by interim CEO Colette Kress. A statement from her in the last few minutes says that she is committed to building on the extraordinary foundation that Jensen Huang has created. She has been the executive vice president and the chief financial officer at NVIDIA since joining the company in September 2013. So she's clearly, her role in the company goes quite far back. Thank Kristen Salumi joins me on the phone. Kristen, so... Tell us a bit more about this company, NVIDIA, you the value of the company, how huge this company is and the impact it has on the financial markets, very and a bit more about the setup of the company and the role that Jensen Huang has played in it. much. Yes, he was there from the beginning. Thank We're looking at stock futures now with the NASDAQ down just over 1%. So it's down. It's not drastic. NVIDIA, however, futures showing down almost 11%. percent So it's not going to be a good day for this company, which was co-founded by Jensen Huang. He is seen as a technical genius, but also someone who was very politically savvy and able to influence the presidential administration. Thank you so much, everyone, for your participation. We're seeing other tech stocks suffer in the pre-market trading as well. As I said, the Nasdaq being down the most, just over 1%. That is the stock index that is most closely tied to technology-related stocks. And remember that NVIDIA was investing at the same time it's growing itself. It's investing in other companies like CloudWeave that are important to the industry as well. So... All of those stocks are at risk, but with this latest news of him resigning and the new CFO, Colette Kress, stepping in as interim CEO, that seems to be keeping things from getting too extreme. And I really want to ask you, Kristen, about his role when it comes to artificial intelligence, because he's been one of the central figures driving the AI revolution that has been ongoing. Yes, that is true. He, he, sorry, I'm trying again. Can you repeat that question, please? I think we were talking about... Yeah, yeah, I will come back to that point because we now have a statement from the company. It's been posted on the company's website. So I just want to read that out for you. I believe we can put it up on the screen as well now. So perhaps not yet, but I will just read it out to you. NVIDIA's, it's on NVIDIA's website. They've posted the details of their new CEO, as I was saying, Colette Kress, who is the executive vice president. And has been the chief financial officer of NVIDIA. She joined the company back in September of 2013 after serving nearly 25 years in a range of financial roles at a number of major technology companies. So she is going to be the interim CEO of the company as a result of this move, this resignation. by the CEO of NVIDIA, Jensen Huang. Thank you. So we have Kristen Salumi on the phone. Kristen, so we are expecting the markets to open in about 15 minutes or so. And this is crucial to see the fact that this decision or this announcement has been made 15 minutes before markets open, because we have seen such impact on the markets in... Over the course of the last week, really, since the news emerged that he had apparently had an affair with a woman who might have been connected with the Chinese government, and then he then confirmed himself that he had had an affair with a woman, with this This particular woman who was allegedly a Chinese spy, give us some more background, if you could, to what's been happening over the course of the last week and how how the story has unraveled. Well, it was on Sunday that Jensen admitted to this affair with Alice Wang, the alleged spy and former executive. She was running a Singapore based company. That was a customer of NVIDIA. All right. Wang sold them chips, and now there's questions about whether or not some of those chips were going to China. Thank NVIDIA's board pretty much immediately announced that they were launching this independent probe and said that they had, you know, no reason to doubt him. But then more information came out. He admitted to the affair. It also came out that he'd had an affair with... you. The vice president at NVIDIA, Kimberly Powell, and so in just a matter of days, we've seen this story unravel, and clearly there was concern about who would replace him. And he... You know, was such a key part of the development of these GPUs, these processing units, graphics processing units that are so crucial to the artificial intelligence build-out that's happening globally. He was an advocate of selling this technology while some were worried about national security. So all of this is now being questioned, but NVIDIA, again, saying that they don't believe any improprieties, that was in their initial statement, clearly moving to fill what many worried would be a hole and a gap in the leadership of this company, Where he was known for having foresight and being able to not only... Develop this technology, but negotiate with world leaders on how to advance the industry.