Jensen Huang resigns Nvidia as Elon Musk offers an open door

By Amara Osei

$450 billion in Nvidia’s market value vanished in the days after cofounder Jensen Huang admitted an affair; on Thursday, he resigned as president, CEO and director with immediate effect.

What changed at Nvidia?

Nvidia announced Huang’s departure Thursday morning, with Colette Kress, its chief financial officer, taking over as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor. Longtime director Harvey Jones became the company’s first board chair.

The exit removes the cofounder who built Nvidia into a chipmaker now ranked No. 16 on the 2026 Fortune 500 and central to the AI boom. It also starts a leadership test before Huang’s personal and national-security scrutiny has ended.

Nvidia faces an interim chief, an open investigation and no permanent successor yet.

What did Musk actually offer?

Before Nvidia announced the resignation, Elon Musk said he wanted to hire Huang. After a Wall Street Journal report that Nvidia’s board was preparing to oust its cofounder, Reuters relayed the report, and Musk replied on X on Wednesday evening to a post asking him to hire Huang.

Musk wrote: “That would be an honor.” His five-word response named no company, no role and no discussions; it only showed that Huang remained employable after holding Nvidia’s top job for 33 years.

Musk offered a welcome, not a job.

What happened before the resignation?

On Sunday, Huang publicly apologized for his infidelity. Nvidia’s board initially said it had confidence in Huang and his leadership team, while opening an independent investigation and finding no reason to believe company secrets or national security had been compromised.

His affair involved Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, an Nvidia cloud partner. U.S. intelligence officials reportedly believe she acted for Chinese intelligence, which Beijing denies.

On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Huang also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reported directly to him. The board reportedly met later that day to decide his future.

After the resignation, Reuters cited two people familiar with the matter who described another intimate relationship between Huang and an Nvidia employee. Nvidia and Huang have not confirmed that account.

The sequence matters: initial support gave way to a board meeting, then the resignation, while the investigations continued.

The board’s initial confidence did not survive the expanding personal scrutiny.

What support does Huang retain?

At a September 2024 dinner at Nobu in Palo Alto, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison recalled that he and Musk begged Jensen for GPUs and asked Nvidia to take more of their money.

In March, Musk said he admired Nvidia and Huang, considered its market capitalization well deserved and expected SpaceX AI and Tesla to keep buying Nvidia chips at scale.

The relationship also has personal roots. In May, Musk reposted decade-old photographs of the pair with the single word True. In October, he wrote that old friends were the best and that Huang rocks, alongside a clip about their collaboration on computing infrastructure for space.

Huang reciprocated in January 2025 by saying Musk was working on the right things. Later that year, he called Musk the ultimate GPU, comparing his ability to juggle complex information with Nvidia’s chips.

Tech and finance leaders formed a wider support network. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney urged the board to retain Huang, likened a dismissal to Apple firing Steve Jobs and credited Huang with successive eras from gaming graphics to AI supercomputers. Billionaire investor Bill Ackman argued that exceptional people make mistakes and urged support for Huang and his family.

Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire criticized Huang’s conduct but described him as irreplaceable for America’s AI leadership; Musk replied that he agreed. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and 37signals CTO David Heinemeier Hansson also backed him.

The support gives Huang a broad network, but no supporter announced a job for him.

What comes before his next job?

Huang has announced no next role. He could join another company, start something new or leave company leadership altogether, and Musk’s public welcome supplies no job description.

Nvidia’s internal investigation remains open. So does the FBI inquiry into his relationship with Alice Huang, which President Donald Trump says is underway.

His finances still give him time to decide. He still holds about 3.6% of Nvidia, making him the company’s fourth-largest shareholder. His estimated net worth fell roughly $10 billion during the week to about $145 billion, dropping him out of the world’s 10 richest people.

Divorce could reduce that figure: Lori Huang could be entitled to half, depending on marital agreements and which assets count as separate property, Forbes reported. Neither spouse has announced plans to divorce.

Before any new employment, however, Huang has agreed to testify before lawmakers, with an appearance expected before Thanksgiving, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast said. Mast said Huang has “very serious questions to answer.”

Congress, not a new employer, sets his immediate deadline.