Jensen Huang, the co-founder and longtime chief executive of Nvidia, resigned on Thursday, after reports of two extramarital affairs, including one with a businesswoman whom U.S. intelligence officials suspect was working for China, Al Jazeera reports.
His departure ends 33 years leading the company he helped build into the world’s leading maker of artificial-intelligence chips.
Huang, 63, co-founded Nvidia in 1993 with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem after discussing the idea over coffee at a Denny’s restaurant in San Jose, California.
Nvidia began by making graphics chips for computers, then expanded into the specialized processors, GPUs, that now power much of modern artificial intelligence.
Under Huang, Nvidia became central to the AI boom. Its chips are widely used to train and run systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and the company grew from a value of about Sh52 trillion ($400 billion) when ChatGPT launched in late 2022 to more than Sh519 trillion ($4 trillion).
Huang was known for his trademark leather jacket, public keynote speeches, and close involvement in U.S. AI policy.
Huang married Lori Mills, now Lori Huang, in 1985 after meeting her in college, where they were lab partners. They have two adult children, Spencer and Madison Huang, both of whom work at Nvidia.
According to ABC News, Lori Huang reportedly stepped back from her own career to raise…
