What Nvidia loses when it loses Jensen Huang

Jensen Huang is out.

Nvidia announced Thursday that its co-founder and CEO is resigning as president, chief executive officer and board member, effective immediately. Colette Kress, the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, steps in as interim CEO while keeping her CFO title. The board also named Harvey C. Jones as its first chairman and said it will consider both internal and external candidates for the permanent job.

The company offered no detail on why Huang is leaving. The resignation lands in the middle of a messy personal scandal — Huang admitted last weekend to an extramarital affair with a woman who has been described in media reports as a possible Chinese intelligence operative, and a second relationship has also surfaced. Nvidia has said it launched an internal investigation.

Markets braced for the worst and got… almost that. Nvidia opened down 13% and touched 14% in early trading before buyers stepped in, closing down 4.34% for the day. The company shed roughly $182 billion in market value, and its stock is down about 11% for the week. The wider market held up: Alphabet rose 1.79%, Amazon 0.48%, and Microsoft 0.36%.

The read-through for the AI trade is the story here. Nvidia isn’t just a chipmaker; it has been the single biggest emblem of the AI boom, and Huang its public face. Rival AMD added 5.86% and Broadcom jumped 5.54% on the logic that customers will now diversify away from Nvidia — a bet the market voiced all day.

The company reports fiscal third-quarter results on November 17. That call, with an interim CEO at the podium and no permanent successor named, is now the next big test for the entire AI sector.