Jensen Huang has abruptly quit as chief executive of AI chipmaking giant Nvidia after revelations of alleged extramarital affairs, in a stunning fall from grace that sent shockwaves from Silicon Valley to Capitol Hill.
Nvidia is now under scrutiny from US lawmakers in Washington DC demanding Huang answer questions over whether one of his alleged relationships was with a Chinese spy.
One of the world’s most valuable companies as a result of the AI boom, Nvidia has lost $550bn (£415bn) in stock market value in just five days as the scandal dominated headlines.
Nvidia’s interim CEO, Colette Kress, called an emergency meeting of her executive team to discuss the company’s future.
His alleged conduct not only potentially crossed professional boundaries, but has made Nvidia the target of questions from US politicians who have expressed concern about national security risks.
Huang, who has been Nvidia’s public face since 1993, admitted on Sunday to having been “unfaithful” to his wife after reports he had an affair with a suspected Chinese spy, Alice Huang.
On Wednesday, he was reported to have had a second relationship, this time with an Nvidia executive.
Alice Huang (no relation) worked as an executive at the Singaporean firm Megaspeed. She has been suspected of being an intelligence asset for China, according to the New York Times. China has rejected that allegation as a smear.
And US Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Thursday the Department of Justice had not yet drawn any conclusions about whether Alice Huang was engaged in espionage for Beijing.
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons, along with other Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, publicly demanded that Huang brief Congress on the matter.
If he refuses to appear voluntarily before any committee that calls him, he could be subpoenaed, one Senate staff member told the BBC.
Nvidia officials have repeatedly declined to comment since Wednesday. A personal representative of Huang also declined to comment on Thursday.
According to US media, Huang’s alleged second affair was with a long-time Nvidia executive, Kimberly Powell, who reported directly to him within the company.
Sources have told the BBC that Nvidia employees had noticed the pair were unusually close.
Huang had been widely expected to weather the storm after the first affair became public, even as Nvidia announced it had launched an investigation into whether its CEO had been “the target of a foreign intelligence effort”.