Jensen Huang has resigned as CEO of tech giant Nvidia following his reported affairs with a suspected Chinese spy and a company executive.

The firm’s market value fell below $4 trillion for the first time since 2025 following the announcement, capping a volatile week as Huang’s scandals rocked the company, which supplies most of the chips powering advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The stock slid roughly 10 percent in early trading as US markets opened on Thursday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 0.6 percent.

The company appointed Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer and executive vice president, as interim CEO on Thursday.

The firm also added its first-ever board chair, Harvey C Jones, who has been a venture investor for the last three decades.

Nvidia’s board met on Wednesday night to discuss ousting Huang, whose relationship with an alleged Chinese spy triggered investigations by the FBI, the United States Congress and the California-based chip maker. Nvidia is also facing a shareholder class-action lawsuit.

The alleged Chinese intelligence asset, Alice Huang, is a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, Nvidia’s primary business partner in Southeast Asia. Founded in 2023, Megaspeed has been investigated over whether it helped Chinese companies access its $4.8bn stock of powerful Nvidia chips.

The affair has raised national security concerns in the US, which restricts chip sales to China over concerns that the Chinese military, intelligence agencies or companies could use the advanced technology.

Huang, 63, is Nvidia’s cofounder, president and CEO. A close ally of US President Donald Trump, he has pushed to ease US restrictions on chip exports to China. Trump said earlier this week that Huang told him he had “absolutely no idea” that he was in a relationship with an intelligence operative.

Huang owns about 3.6 percent of Nvidia’s stock, making him one of the richest people in the world. He is a powerful figure in the AI industry, which has driven record stock market and wider economic gains. The company is set to report quarterly earnings on Tuesday.

Aleksandar Tomic, associate dean for strategy, innovation, and technology at Boston College, told Global News Insight that the “resignation of Jensen Huang will have an outsized effect compared to a similar event at another large corporation given the relatively flat structure of Nvidia.”

But he said that Nvidia, an AI bellwether, “is in a very strong position” that will enable the company to transition from Huang’s leadership. Tomic called Huang’s resignation a “speed bump” for the company.

“Nvidia is a strong company with a strong product and this is a sudden event, not a product of corporate struggle,” he said. “It may take some time to figure out the succession process, but Nvidia can handle it as they approach it from the position of strength.”

Nvidia’s board, which hired a law firm to investigate the affair with Alice Huang, met to decide Huang’s fate on Wednesday shortly after The New York Times reported that Huang also had an extramarital relationship with an Nvidia vice president who reports to him.

Nvidia’s stock has tumbled since the scandal erupted, falling to a 14-year low, the Reuters news agency reported.