Jensen Huang ousted? WSJ: Nvidia board prepares to remove its CEO

Nvidia’s board is preparing to oust Jensen Huang as CEO, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, citing people familiar with the matter (via Reuters). The board could meet as soon as the same day. No decision has been announced, and Reuters notes that it could not verify the reports.

Is Jensen Huang being ousted? What do we know?

We have three reports from a single evening, and all of them are secondhand:

1. The New York Times reported that Huang had an affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare, who according to the paper reports to him. The NYT cites five people who worked at the company. Asked about it by phone, Huang reportedly replied “I don’t think you should be talking to me directly” and hung up.
2. Shortly afterwards, the WSJ reported that the board is preparing to remove the CEO after two extramarital affairs, one of them with a woman suspected of working for Chinese intelligence.
3. Bloomberg added (as relayed by Yahoo Finance) that Nvidia is looking for potential successors to Huang with the help of an outside firm.

Nvidia and Powell did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters and CNBC.

How is this different from Sunday’s story?

On Sunday, November 8, the story was about his relationship with Alice Huang of Megaspeed, which I covered in the post on Jensen Huang and the China spy report. The board opened an independent investigation then (according to CNBC, with the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz), but said it still had confidence in the CEO, and a company spokesperson insisted Huang would lead Nvidia without interruption. To the question “is Huang stepping down as CEO?” my answer at the time was “no”. Three days later, that answer is no longer certain.

The second thread is of a different kind. The board’s investigation was about whether Huang was the target of foreign intelligence, a situation in which a CEO can also be a victim. A relationship with a subordinate is a question about the company’s own rules. Gil Luria of D.A. Davidson told Reuters that if Huang broke the law or company policy, the board would likely act as soon as it had proof.

Who could replace Huang?

We don’t know, and according to analysts Nvidia itself may not know either. Luria points out that the company “does not have a succession plan in place”, so removing Huang immediately would be hard for it. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has run it for more than three decades.

Jake Dollarhide of Longbow Asset Management believes (in Reuters’ roundup of reactions) that the board won’t remove the CEO until it has a well-known industry name lined up, even if only as interim CEO. That would fit Bloomberg’s report about the search.

What does it change for the AI world?

The market reacted hard. According to CNBC, Nvidia shares fell more than 9% in after-hours trading, and Reuters calculates that the company has lost about $600 billion in value this week since the investigation was announced.

The hardware and the CUDA software won’t disappear along with the CEO, though. Chris Weston of Pepperstone reckons a new person won’t derail the company’s product lineup, but he also notes that AMD and Broadcom shares rose after hours, meaning investors expect competitors to take part of the market.

I see a bigger risk in politics than in chips. As Weston says, it is Huang who has the relationships with partners in China, Japan and Korea. According to the analyst, politicians who would like to use Nvidia in the US-China dispute now have every reason to. And Chinese labs are already turning to their own hardware anyway (like DeepSeek with Huawei Ascend in DeepInfer).

What happens next?

The nearest dates haven’t changed. Nvidia reports third-quarter results on November 17, and members of Congress wanted a closed-door meeting with Huang on November 18. Reuters writes that if Huang doesn’t respond to that invitation, he could face a congressional subpoena.

Donald Trump said he had not talked to Huang about the allegations and called him “an honorable guy”.

All three reports rest on anonymous sources, so let’s treat them with caution until the board makes an official statement.

FAQ

Has Jensen Huang been fired?

No. As of the night of November 11-12, 2026, Nvidia had not announced any decision. According to the WSJ, the board is only preparing to remove the CEO.

Why would Nvidia’s board oust Huang?

According to the WSJ, because of two extramarital affairs: one with Alice Huang, whom US intelligence suspects of working for China, and one (as the NYT reported) with an Nvidia vice president.

How much has Nvidia stock lost?

More than 9% in after-hours trading following the WSJ report (according to CNBC). Since the board announced its investigation, that adds up to about $600 billion in market value (according to Reuters).