Nvidia's official account of Jensen Huang's exit is one sentence long. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dated Nov. 12, the company said its board "accepted the resignation" of Huang as president, chief executive and director on Nov. 11, effective immediately. It gave no reason.

The reporting tells a harder story. CNN said the board convened on Wednesday night, Nov. 11, to weigh whether to oust Huang. Bloomberg, in a report carried by The Japan Times under the headline "Nvidia's Huang ousted by board," said he was removed after reports of three affairs, one of them with a woman suspected of spying for China. Fortune also described the departure as an ouster. Nvidia has not said Huang was asked to leave, and Huang has not commented publicly on how the decision was made.

For investors in Asia's chip supply chain, the distinction matters. A voluntary exit by a founder suggests a personal decision. A board that removes the most powerful chief executive in the semiconductor industry is a board that has decided to act on its own, and it is that board which now picks his successor and runs the company's dealings with customers and suppliers from Taiwan to South Korea.

Four days from 'confidence' to a Wednesday night meeting

The board's stance shifted quickly. On Sunday, Nov. 8, it opened an independent investigation into reports that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort, as Capital Times reported in its story on the board investigation. In that statement, according to CNN, the board said it had "confidence" in Huang and "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised." The same day, Huang told staff he had been unfaithful to his wife.

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, the independent directors named Joon H. Kim, a former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to run the inquiry, The Next Web reported. Citing a spokesman quoted by the New York Times, it said Huang played no part in choosing counsel and would keep leading the company.

That plan held for less than two days. On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Huang had also had an affair with an Nvidia executive who reported to him, according to CNN and Fortune. CNN said the board met that night to consider removing him, and called the outcome "a quick reversal" of its Sunday position. The 8-K dates the board's acceptance of his resignation to the same day, Nov. 11. Nvidia announced the change on Thursday, Nov. 12.

None of the outlets reviewed by Capital Times described a vote count, named the directors who pressed for Huang's departure or said whether he was given a choice between resigning and being removed. Their accounts differ in detail: Bloomberg referred to three affairs, while Fortune's report described two relationships, the one with Alice Huang and one with executive Kimberly Powell.

What the board said, and what it left out

The company's press release is warm toward Huang. It thanked him for "immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry" and called those contributions "profound." Harvey C. Jones, 73, a director since 1993 who was named the company's first board chair on Nov. 11, said the board "has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team." Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress is interim CEO and remains CFO while the board searches inside and outside the company for a permanent successor.

The release does not mention the investigation. Nvidia has not said whether the inquiry led by Kim will continue now that Huang has left, and no findings have been made public. The only conclusion the board has offered remains its Sunday statement that it had no reason to believe security or company secrets were compromised. Huang has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Why the board could act

Huang had little structural protection. Fortune reported that Nvidia's bylaws let the board remove the CEO for any reason at any time, and that its one-share, one-vote structure gave Huang no special voting rights. He owned about 870.6 million shares, or roughly 3.58% of the company, as of March, according to the 2026 proxy statement cited by Fortune, while Vanguard and BlackRock each held more than 7%. That is a sharp contrast with Meta, where Mark Zuckerberg controls about 60% of the votes.

Huang had described this arrangement himself. In a January podcast interview quoted by Fortune, he said a CEO who does not perform in the eyes of the board "is let go." Earlier, he told Bloomberg he had avoided the chair role so the CEO could be held accountable, and that "I'm completely fireable," The Next Web reported.

The board that used that power has a long history with him. Huang, Jones and Tench Coxe had all served since 1993, according to the proxy statement cited by The Next Web. Until Nov. 11 the company had no chair, relying instead on lead independent director Stephen Neal, Fortune reported.

The next test of how the board handles the fallout comes on Tuesday, Nov. 17, when Nvidia reports third-quarter results with Kress in charge. Nvidia shares closed at $166.19 on Thursday, Nov. 12, down 4.34%, according to Nasdaq.