Washington: Following revelations about two alleged extramarital relationships, including one involving a Chinese businesswoman suspected by US intelligence of having links to Chinese intelligence services, Nvidia is reportedly considering the future of its co-founder and CEO, Jensen Huang.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Nvidia's board is preparing to meet as early as Thursday to discuss Huang's position at the company, which produces some of the world's most sought-after computer chips.
The New York Times reported that Huang had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare, who reports to him. Citing five people who worked at the company, the newspaper said the relationship had not previously been reported. Huang and Powell, 48, were reportedly captured on video behaving affectionately at a hotel in San Jose, California, during an Nvidia conference in March.
Powell joined Nvidia in 2008 and oversees programmes focused on applying the company's chip technology to higher education and healthcare, particularly medical imaging devices.
The reported relationship has raised questions about Nvidia's workplace policies. The company's code of conduct asks employees to avoid situations that create conflicts, including personal relationships, and states that it promptly investigates reports of misconduct, The New York Times reported.
The latest revelations follow scrutiny of Huang's reported relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman associated with Singapore-based data company Megaspeed, a major Nvidia customer. US intelligence officials had identified her as an alleged Chinese intelligence asset.
The Wall Street Journal reported that this was the relationship Huang acknowledged in a letter to Nvidia employees on Sunday, admitting that he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologising for violating their trust. Nvidia's board reportedly initiated an investigation, led by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, according to The New York Times.
The developments have also drawn attention to Huang's position on US chip exports to China. While expressing his interest in helping America succeed, Huang has argued that Nvidia should be allowed to sell less advanced chips, including the H200, to China. The company has maintained that such sales would help keep the broader AI ecosystem tied to the United States and limit the space available to Chinese chipmakers developing competing technologies.
These arguments have previously faced scrutiny, including from Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who sought Huang's appearance before the Senate Banking Committee to answer questions about his push to ease export restrictions. Huang has so far declined to appear.
Following the revelations about his personal relationships, Democrats raised concerns about whether the Chinese government could have compromised a major American technology company.
In a statement on Monday, Warren said Nvidia had reportedly received approval to export "hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips to China, including to companies tied to China's military". She said Huang's relationship with Alice Huang "raises important questions NVIDIA must answer about the extent to which these activities were related".
Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has transformed it into a leading supplier of artificial intelligence chips.
(With agency inputs from ANI and AP via PTI)
