On November 8, the day Jensen Huang admitted to a relationship with Alice Huang, a woman US intelligence officials suspect of working for China, Nvidia's board announced an investigation, and in the same statement expressed confidence in the CEO's leadership. Four days later, according to The Wall Street Journal, the same board was preparing to oust him. What happened in between? One report: another relationship, this time with a vice president who reports directly to Huang.
Why does this matter more than a suspected spy?
It sounds backward, but it makes sense from a board's point of view. The espionage suspicion has not been proven, Nvidia denies secrets were compromised, and such an investigation can take months. A romantic relationship between a CEO and an employee who reports to him, by contrast, is a clear corporate governance problem: conflicts of interest in decisions on pay, promotion and budgets, litigation risk, and the question of whether the CEO disclosed it to the board as the rules require.
There are precedents
In the US, these rules have already brought down CEOs of giant companies. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich resigned in 2018 after it emerged he had a relationship with an employee, in breach of company policy. McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook was fired in 2019 for a similar reason. In both cases the board did not need to prove business damage: the breach of the rules itself, and especially non-disclosure, was enough.
And the board's own problem
There is embarrassment for the board here too. If it expressed confidence in Huang on November 8 without knowing about the second relationship, that raises the question of how much it really knew about what goes on in the company. If it knew, that statement looks today like an error of judgment. Either way, a board that declared confidence and then weighs removal four days later must show it is acting on rules, not headlines.
What does it mean going forward?
Even if Huang stays, the days when he was above the rules are over. Nvidia will need oversight mechanisms companies its size should have built long ago: a clear policy, a strong board chair and a succession plan. It is a lesson not only for Nvidia but for any company, in Israel too, built around one strong founder.
