Is Jensen Huang’s job on the line? Yale’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld estimates it’s “about a 50-50”

Nvidia's board said Sunday it is opening an independent investigation after CEO Jensen Huang told staff he had been unfaithful to his wife, TechCrunch reports. The relationship was with Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore cloud firm Megaspeed, whom U.S. officials reportedly believe spied for China. No one has been charged, and China's embassy has rejected the allegations. The New York Times reported that unnamed senior Trump administration officials doubt the CEO could have remained unaware of any such role. The board says it sees no sign that national security or company secrets were compromised, and that Huang will stay on.

Yale's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld told TechCrunch editor Connie Loizos that Huang's career is salvageable but put his odds at "about a 50-50." He called the episode remarkably poor judgment, saying any other Nvidia employee would be fired. Huang's accumulated goodwill could help if he proves he was duped, Sonnenfeld said. Huang has no super-voting shares to protect him, and about 60 direct reports leave no clear successor. Sonnenfeld floated Eric Schmidt as a possible outside option.

The stakes are broad because Nvidia has invested in OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and others, and in August signed preliminary deals with major financial firms aimed at mobilizing over $500 billion. Independent directors must determine what technology, if any, reached China, including through Megaspeed, which reportedly bought about $2 billion in Nvidia chips. Nvidia has said earlier diversion allegations were debunked. Nvidia reports earnings November 17, and three House chairmen want a closed-door briefing from Huang the next day.