Jensen Huang's $145 Billion Fortune and the California Divorce Math

Jensen Huang has lost the Nvidia presidency, the chief executive role, his board seat and roughly $10 billion in paper wealth since admitting an affair — and if his 41-year marriage ends, California law could place a far larger share of his $145 billion fortune in play. Huang has not announced plans to divorce. That gap — between what the headlines promise and what the filings actually show — is where this story begins.

What happened at Nvidia?

Huang stepped down as president, CEO and director days after confessing in a letter to Nvidia employees that he had been unfaithful to Lori Huang, his wife since 1985. The board named CFO Colette Kress interim CEO and made longtime director Harvey Jones its first board chair while the search for a permanent successor proceeds.

"I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry," Huang wrote. "I owe my family and all of you an apology."

The admission followed a New York Times report that U.S. intelligence agencies suspected Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, of gathering information for Beijing, and that she had a close relationship with Huang. China has denied involvement. Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs said she left Singapore in February and was barred from returning after a police investigation that "did not concern espionage."

Two more relationships have since surfaced. The New York Times reported on November 11 that Huang was romantically involved with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care, who reported directly to him, citing five people who had worked at the company. A day later, Reuters reported an intimate relationship with another unnamed Nvidia employee. Powell did not respond to the Times; Nvidia declined to comment to Reuters.

Nvidia's board opened an independent investigation into whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort and said it had "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised." An FBI inquiry into his relationship with Alice Huang is also underway.

Who holds the shares?

The numbers come first. Huang reported beneficial ownership of about 870.6 million Nvidia shares, or 3.58% of the company's outstanding stock, as of March 23, 2026, per Nvidia's 2026 proxy statement. Nvidia ranked No. 16 on the 2026 Fortune 500 and was the first company on that list worth more than $4 trillion.

The structure matters more than the headline figure:

• Jensen and Lori Huang serve as co-trustees of their living trust, which holds about 528.5 million shares.
• Two other family trusts bring the three-trust total to nearly 669 million shares.
• Another 73.3 million shares sit in limited liability companies whose sole member is the living trust.
• The Jen-Hsun & Lori Huang Foundation, which Lori Huang runs as president, holds about 58.7 million Nvidia shares among roughly $9.2 billion in assets reported at the end of 2024. The proxy states neither spouse has a pecuniary interest in those shares.

Here is the caveat that follows every promise of an even split: beneficial ownership and control of shares do not by themselves establish personal ownership, or determine how a court would divide them.

What does California law allow?

The couple met as lab partners at Oregon State University and married in 1985, eight years before Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993. They live in California, a community-property state: assets acquired during marriage are generally owned jointly and divided equally in divorce.

"In California, all property acquired by a spouse during marriage is community property," Christopher Melcher, a Los Angeles attorney who specializes in high-net-worth divorces, told the New York Post. "She would be entitled to 50%."

Under California Courts guidance, community property generally covers earnings and assets acquired between the marriage date and the separation date. Property owned before marriage, acquired after separation, or received as gifts and inheritances stays separate — and some assets mix both. So Lori Huang could claim half of the community-property portion of the couple's Nvidia holdings, not necessarily half of every share tied to her husband.

The outcome would turn on how the shares were acquired, how the trusts are structured, whether separate and community assets were commingled, and whether the couple signed a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement. A court would need to examine those details before ruling.

California is also a no-fault divorce state: either spouse can file without proving infidelity, and infidelity across several reported relationships generally does not enlarge one spouse's share.

Why is the net worth figure unreliable?

Huang is worth about $145 billion and ranks as the world's 13th-richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That figure is a market estimate, not a tally of marital property, and it moves with Nvidia's stock — which shed $450 billion in market value in the days after his admission.

Huang has described his wife's role plainly. "Every moment of Nvidia, she was there," he said in an interview with CNA.

Until a filing appears, every number in this story is provisional.