Nvidia's Board Is Preparing to Oust CEO Jensen Huang, WSJ Reports

Photo by Number 10, cropped (OGL)

The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday evening that Nvidia directors are getting ready to push out founder and CEO Jensen Huang, according to people the paper said were familiar with the matter. He is still in the job.

The featured image shows Huang, right, with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at an Nvidia event in London in 2025. Photo by Number 10, cropped (OGL).

Key Takeaways

The Journal labeled the story an exclusive. At 5:31 p.m. ET Wednesday, its official X account said directors are getting ready to remove Huang after two affairs outside his marriage, one of them with a woman the post called a suspected Chinese spy.
A Reuters dispatch that cited the Journal said a board meeting could come as soon as Wednesday, that the company had no immediate comment, and that the stock had dropped about 8% after the closing bell.
On Sunday, those same directors said they still had “confidence in Jensen” and “no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised,” as Pop Culture Pit reported when the independent inquiry was announced.
Huang has already acknowledged being unfaithful in a note to staff. The spy claim is still an allegation. Reuters also pointed to a New York Times story, published earlier Wednesday, that described a second relationship with a subordinate executive at the company.
Nothing in the Wednesday reporting says the board has already voted him out.

The Full Story

What the Journal and Reuters Said

In the Journal’s post, later tightened for wording, the paper said Nvidia’s directors are preparing to remove Huang over two affairs, one of them involving a woman it described as a suspected Chinese spy. The preview card on that post used the exclusive label and said the step comes after the company’s review of a relationship with a woman from China who, the card said, is alleged to have been a spy. The story is on wsj.com. This account follows the Journal’s official post and a Reuters item that cited the paper; we are not adding detail from inside the article that we did not open.

Reuters carried the Journal’s account on Wednesday and said directors could sit down as soon as later in the day to decide what happens next. The same item said Nvidia had not yet answered a request for comment, and that the shares were off about 8% in late trading. The comment and after-hours figures are from Reuters, not from the Journal post we opened.

How This Differs From Sunday

That is a hard swing from Sunday. In our earlier report, Nvidia said independent directors, working with outside counsel, would look at Huang’s relationship with a woman named in a New York Times story about a possible Chinese influence effort. The board said then that it still trusted Huang and had seen no sign that national security or company secrets had been put at risk. He stayed in the job while that review was underway. Wednesday’s Journal report does not say a vote has already happened.

What Is Confirmed, and What Is Still an Allegation

In a Sunday email to employees, Huang said he had been unfaithful to his wife and that what he did hurt her and their children. The woman named in the earlier Times reporting is Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le. She is no relation to him. American officials have described her as a suspected Chinese spy; that has not been proven in public. China’s embassy in Washington has denied any spying, and Nvidia has said it has seen no evidence that secrets were lost. Pop Culture Pit is not treating the espionage claim as a finding.

Reuters said the Times, earlier Wednesday, also described a relationship with a subordinate executive at the company. We did not open that Times article in this pass, and it is presented here only as Reuters’s account of that report. More technology coverage is on our Tech & AI page.

What We Don’t Know Yet

As of Wednesday evening, neither Nvidia nor Huang had issued a public response to the Journal report. Directors who are said to be preparing a change can still choose another path once they meet. We will update this story if the company, Huang or the board speaks on the record.