Analysis
Nvidia's board is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday, November 11, 2026, hours after a second alleged affair surfaced, and the chipmaker has lost more than $450 billion in market value since the scandal began, according to Fortune, citing CBS News. Nvidia shares fell in after-hours trading Wednesday as the report spread, Fortune and ABC7 reported. As of this edition, none of the reports Pulse reviewed showed the board announcing a decision.
What changed since the board opened its investigation
Pulse first reported on November 9 that Nvidia's board had opened an independent investigation after Huang told staff on November 8 that he had been unfaithful to his wife, in a relationship with Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed International. U.S. officials believe she is an agent of China's Ministry of State Security, per AP reporting cited by Fortune; the two are not related, and no one has been charged. Pulse then covered the first securities suit, filed by Rosen Law Firm on November 9, the day Nvidia shares fell more than 4%.
Three things are new. On November 11, The New York Times reported a second relationship, with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare and a direct report of Huang's, according to TechCrunch. The Times said five employees told it of the alleged affair and that the two were captured on video being affectionate at a San Jose hotel during a conference earlier this year; neither has publicly confirmed it. Second, the Journal's report that the board was preparing to remove Huang, a move that "could happen as soon as Wednesday night," per ABC7 San Francisco. Third, Bloomberg reported that Nvidia is working with an outside firm to explore replacements, according to Fortune.
“Leonard Gilroy of the Reason Foundation told Fortune that "NVIDIA represents about 6% of the total market capitalization of the S&P 500," and about 10% of the Nasdaq-100.”
Who runs Nvidia if Huang goes?
No successor has been named in any report Pulse reviewed. Huang has run Nvidia since co-founding it in 1993, and the company has no chief operating officer while Huang has roughly 60 direct reports, Fortune reported on November 9, as Pulse noted in its lawsuit coverage. Governance experts quoted then floated lead independent director Stephen Neal or CFO Colette Kress as interim options. Yale's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld had put Huang's survival odds at about 50-50 before the second allegation, and noted Huang holds no super-voting stock, which makes a board-led removal simpler than at founder-controlled peers.
How exposed are ordinary investors?
Leonard Gilroy of the Reason Foundation told Fortune that "NVIDIA represents about 6% of the total market capitalization of the S&P 500," and about 10% of the Nasdaq-100. He estimated the average American's exposure at 3% to 5% and warned that spillover to other AI companies "can be significant." Penn Carey Law's Jill Fisch took the other side, telling Fortune that "over the long term, this is going to be a tiny blip."
Value Add VC data
Nvidia is public, so there are no private rounds to list. What the scandal has cost so far, from the sources linked above:
- Nov 8-11, 2026 -- more than $450 billion of market value lost since the scandal began (CBS News, via Fortune)
- Nov 9, 2026 -- shares fell more than 4% on the day the first securities suit was filed (Pulse)
- Nov 11, 2026 -- shares fell after hours following the Journal report (ABC7, Fortune)
Nvidia is reported by Fortune, citing Yahoo Finance, to have reached a $5.5 trillion market cap in May 2026.
The risk in reading this as settled
However, a newspaper report that a board is preparing to act is not a vote, and the Journal's own timeline of Wednesday night passed with no announcement in the coverage Pulse reviewed. The Powell allegation rests on anonymous employee accounts, and the board's Megaspeed probe has not reported findings. For private markets the sharper question is the AI trade itself: Anthropic's IPO book and OpenAI's next round are both being priced while the sector's largest supplier has no settled CEO. Precedents cut both ways: McDonald's dismissed Steve Easterbrook in 2019 over a consensual relationship with an employee and named Chris Kempczinski CEO effective immediately, per Al Jazeera, a same-day handoff Nvidia, with no named successor, cannot yet copy.