Nvidia's Board Weighs Jensen Huang's Future as Shares Plunge and Washington Watches

The most valuable chip company on earth spent Wednesday night deciding whether the man who built it should keep his job.

Nvidia's board of directors was meeting Wednesday evening to discuss the future of co-founder and chief executive Jensen Huang, two sources told CNN, in a report carried by CTV News. The Wall Street Journal reported that the board is preparing to remove Huang as CEO, according to the Daily Caller and a Stocktwits report published by Yahoo Finance. Bloomberg reported that Nvidia is working with an outside firm to identify candidates for the top job.

Investors did not wait for a verdict. Nvidia shares fell more than 8 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported, a heavy blow to a company valued at about $4.2 trillion. CNBC put the after-hours slide above 9 percent, according to the Daily Caller. CBS News noted that Nvidia's stock makes up a major portion of many Americans' retirement savings.

As of Wednesday night, none of the reports we reviewed said the board had reached a decision.

The crisis began with a confession. Huang admitted to an extramarital affair in a letter to employees on Sunday, the Journal reported, according to the Daily Caller. In that letter, he said he had been unfaithful to his wife and that his actions had hurt his family, Yahoo Finance reported.

What turned a personal failing into a national story was the woman involved. Alice Huang, who shares the CEO's surname but is not related to him, is an executive at the Singapore data company Megaspeed, the Daily Caller reported, citing the Journal and Axios. U.S. intelligence regards her as an asset of China's Ministry of State Security, according to the Stocktwits report carried by Yahoo Finance. Megaspeed is Nvidia's largest customer in Southeast Asia and has faced scrutiny over suspected chip smuggling, according to Bloomberg reporting cited by the Daily Caller; both Megaspeed and Nvidia deny wrongdoing.

Nvidia's board opened an independent investigation on November 8 and hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the Daily Caller and Yahoo Finance reported. The board has said it sees no evidence that national security or company secrets were compromised, according to the Daily Caller.

Then came a second blow. The New York Times reported that Huang also had an affair with a senior executive who reports directly to him, according to Yahoo Finance and the Daily Caller. That allegation raised a different question for directors: not only national security, but whether the company's own rules on workplace conduct were followed at the very top.

The company has no public succession plan, the Daily Caller reported. The board is expected to consider an interim leader, with lead independent director Stephen Neal among the possible choices, according to Fortune reporting cited by the Daily Caller. Bloomberg's report that an outside firm is helping identify candidates suggests directors are preparing for more than a short-term fix.

Congress has been pressing for answers. Three House committee leaders have asked Huang to brief them behind closed doors on foreign influence and export issues, Yahoo Finance reported. Several lawmakers have called for him to resign, and Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota repeated his demand on Wednesday that Huang step down, the Daily Caller reported, citing CNBC.

President Trump has been more personal in his comments. He called Huang an "amazing guy" and said Huang did not know the woman was a suspected spy, according to the Journal's reporting as relayed by the Daily Caller.

Nvidia did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment.

This is not gossip. Nvidia's chips power America's artificial intelligence industry, its defense research and the data centers rising across the heartland. Its shares sit in millions of 401(k) accounts and pension funds. When a company that important faces questions about whether its leader was exposed to a suspected agent of the Chinese Communist Party, every American saver and every American service member has a stake in the answer.

There is also an older lesson, one any grandparent could teach: character matters, and private choices have public consequences. A leader's faithfulness at home and his trustworthiness at work are not two separate things. Huang built one of the great American companies from a small startup. The board's duty now is to protect that company, its shareholders and the nation's security, whatever that means for the man at the top.

Watch for a statement from Nvidia's board. If directors name an interim chief, the next questions are how long a search will take, whether Huang keeps any role at the company he founded, and whether Congress follows through with a closed-door briefing or a subpoena. Wall Street will deliver its own verdict when trading resumes Thursday morning.