Nvidia removed Jensen Huang this Thursday and presented his departure as a resignation after the infidelity scandal that, depending on the case, could have compromised the company's security. The board of directors, which deliberated for hours, examined the replacement of the CEO and board member after his relationships with two women became known, one of them an alleged Chinese spy and the other an employee of the company under his supervision.
The board appointed Colette Kress, CFO since 2013, as interim CEO while it searches for a permanent replacement. Kress is a well-known figure among investors and analysts because she usually leads the conferences where the company explains its financial results.
The company also indicated that the search process includes internal and external candidates, but for now there is no definitive replacement.
A statement that praises the successor and dismisses Huang with a single sentence
The statement sent to the media reserved more space to highlight Kress's work and congratulate her than to dismiss Jensen Huang. Regarding Huang, the text was limited to one sentence: “Jensen's contributions to Nvidia are momentous. The Board of Directors and the company thank Jensen for his invaluable contributions to the company and the industry.”
For the company, the case — with reverberations reaching the White House — remains framed in the challenge of closing the succession without excessively shaking the artificial intelligence sector.
Trump came to Huang's defense
The controversy also splashed Donald Trump, who publicly came to the executive's defense when information about his ties to an alleged Chinese spy became known. The US president called Huang an "honorable man" and assured that he believed his version of events: "I really believe him," he stated after speaking directly with him about the case.
The controversy comes at a particularly delicate moment for Nvidia, whose chips occupy a strategic place in the technological race between the United States and China and in the Trump Administration's plans to maintain US leadership in artificial intelligence.
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