Nvidia after Jensen Huang.

The board acted quickly. On 8 November it opened an independent investigation and said it had confidence in Huang.⁶ Two days later its independent members hired Joon H. Kim, a former acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to run it.³⁰ On 11 November the New York Times reported a second relationship, and the Wall Street Journal reported that directors were preparing to remove Huang. That day the board accepted his resignation.^4,14,29 Nvidia announced it the next morning and gave no reason.^28,31

Harvey C. Jones, a director since 1993, is now Nvidia’s first chair. Colette Kress, chief financial officer since 2013, is interim chief executive and will stay on as CFO.^28,29 In our view, holding both jobs through the results, the investigation and the hearings is a heavy load for one person. And because Jones has been on the board since 1993, investors will look for signs that the board itself is changing.

The resignation does not end the investigation, and its scope has not been published. Governance experts quoted by Fortune said a central question is what Huang told directors, and when.¹⁵ That question, and how the company handled contacts with officials, now concern Nvidia’s internal controls. Nvidia says its general counsel did not know of the affair when he called the Commerce Department about the Megaspeed inquiry.¹⁰

The ten directors who will choose include three who joined in 1993: Harvey C. Jones, now chair, Tench Coxe and Mark Stevens, who left in 2006 and returned in 2008. Brooke Seawell joined in 1997. Stephen Neal, a director since 2019 and the lead independent director, is chairman emeritus of Cooley, Nvidia’s long-time law firm. The others are Dawn Hudson, John Dabiri, Aarti Shah, Melissa Lora and Suzanne Nora Johnson, a former Goldman Sachs vice chairman who joined in July.^46,15,47

Analysts quoted by CBS News expect Kress to serve only as interim; prediction markets gave her about a one-in-five chance of the permanent job on 12 November. Cook would have to leave Apple if chosen. Rene Haas ran Nvidia’s computing products business before he joined Arm in 2013. Polymarket also lists Nvidia’s chief technology officer, Michael Kagan, at about 3%, and some reports mention Nikesh Arora of Palo Alto Networks and Lisa Su of AMD.^44,45

In our view, an insider such as Buck would reassure engineers and customers that the technical direction will not change. An outsider with political standing, such as Cook, could help in Washington and Beijing but would be new to the business. Either way, the choice will be read as a signal of how far the board wants to move on from the Huang era.

President Trump supported Huang throughout. On 9 November he said the FBI was “looking into it” but that Huang “had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy.”⁹ After the resignation he said Huang had “done a fantastic job” and suggested Tim Cook as his successor.^31,40 The New York Times has reported that Trump was briefed on the intelligence about a year ago and took no action.⁸ The White House says Trump has “complete confidence” in Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.⁴²

Congress is pressing ahead. Representative Brian Mast, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Huang had agreed to testify behind closed doors. Mast’s letters propose sessions with Huang on 1 December, with general counsel Tim Teter on 2 December and with Jeffrey Kessler of the Commerce Department on 3 December.^32,33 Senator Tim Scott, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, asked Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to appear on 3 December. Senate Majority Leader John Thune supports a Senate investigation.^35,33

Both parties are involved. John Moolenaar, a Republican, called the resignation “an unfortunate end that could have been avoided” and said Congress must move quickly on export-control legislation.³⁴ Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, said it does not “absolve” Huang. With Chris Coons, she asked Lutnick, Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller to preserve records. Chuck Schumer asked whether officials had been told not to investigate.³³ Democrats take control of both chambers in January, and Warren is expected to chair the Senate Banking Committee.^26,13 In our view, the most immediate policy risk for Nvidia is the push to add chip-export rules to the annual defence bill.³³

China’s foreign ministry calls the allegation “unsubstantiated” and “nothing but smears against China.” The state-owned Global Times said critics were “firing shots from the shadows” to disrupt improving relations.⁸ After the resignation, the paper quoted Chinese experts who saw it as a sign of growing political interference in the US tech sector, and reported that foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the US should stop using “Chinese spy” narratives as a pretext for technology restrictions.⁴¹ Trump meets Xi Jinping in Shenzhen on 18 and 19 November and has said Xi will probably raise the case.^8,25

In our view, the outcome is mixed for Beijing. Huang was the most prominent American voice for selling China more advanced chips, and the case helps people in Washington who want fewer sales. Beijing is already restricting purchases of the H200 chip that the US cleared for sale.^7,8 But if the allegations are never proven, Beijing can say Washington overreached. And Trump arrives in Shenzhen while Nvidia has only an interim chief executive. Chinese officials have said little, but China has a lot at stake.

The main open question is whether advanced Nvidia chips reached China through Southeast Asia. On 12 November Singapore’s Home Affairs Ministry gave its fullest account so far. Police and Singapore Customs have investigated Megaspeed and other companies since February 2025 over suspected false declarations linked to server purchases, and the investigation into Megaspeed and six other people is ongoing.³⁹ Police also investigated Alice Huang, as Megaspeed’s then chief executive and chair. In February, after consulting prosecutors, they found insufficient evidence that she had committed any offence, but assessed that she had given them information she knew to be inaccurate to play down her role. She was given a stern warning and barred from re-entering Singapore. The ministry said she was not investigated for espionage.^39,40 Megaspeed denies diverting chips and says it takes export-control compliance “extremely seriously.”^11,31

In the US, Bloomberg reported that Nvidia’s general counsel, Tim Teter, called Jeffrey Kessler about the Megaspeed inquiry in late summer 2025. Kessler is the Commerce under secretary in charge of export enforcement. Bloomberg also reported that staff were told to route Nvidia requests through Kessler, and that the Justice Department later asked Commerce to pause the case. The case concerned whether about $2bn of Nvidia processors reached China through Megaspeed.^9,10 Megaspeed denies this, and Kessler reportedly told staff to follow proper procedure.^9,10 Singapore’s ministry also said it had asked the US Justice Department and the FBI several times for information about Supermicro, a US server supplier, and had received “limited information or assistance.”³⁹ US prosecutors are active in this area. In March they charged a Super Micro co-founder over an alleged $2.5bn scheme to move AI servers to China through Southeast Asia.²⁷

These questions will take longer to settle than the leadership change. Nvidia replaced its chief executive within four days of his letter to staff. A reopened export case, subpoenas for call records or new rules for buyers in Southeast Asia could take years, whoever runs Nvidia. Senator Michael Bennet has already asked for an update on the Justice Department’s Megaspeed investigation.³³

Nvidia’s shares fell before Huang left. On 9 November they dropped as much as 8.8% and closed down 4.3%, about $190bn of market value.¹⁵ After the reports of 11 November they fell another 8% in after-hours trading.¹¹ The resignation was announced before the market opened on 12 November. The shares fell as much as 13% at the open, taking Nvidia’s market value below $4tn, and closed down more than 4%.^42,31 Oppenheimer and Bernstein downgraded the stock.⁴² Fast Company put the five-day fall at more than 15%.³⁷

Analysts are now focused on succession. Citi’s analysts see Kress as a likely stopgap, and Morningstar named Nvidia executive Ian Buck as a logical successor.³⁷ ARK Invest bought about $17m of shares on the first day of the sell-off. Founder ETFs had said it would sell if Huang left.^16,15 A proposed shareholder class action filed on 9 November alleges that Nvidia and Huang misled investors. The claims have not been tested in court.¹⁶ Customers have said little in public. They need Nvidia’s systems whoever runs the company. In Taiwan, the economist Chang Chien-yi said he did not think the case would stop AI development, and TSMC shares rose 5.85% on 9 November.²³

“Hasten a transition the company is not prepared for.”