Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., during the Nvidia GTC conference in San Jose, California, US, on Wednesday, March 18, 2026.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang‘s admission of an affair with a purported Chinese spy has raised questions about his future at the company, and what happens if the 63-year-old co-founder, who built the chipmaker into one of the most valuable businesses on the planet, is forced out.
Shares of Nvidia sank more than 4% on Monday, even as the broader market rallied sharply, after Huang acknowledged the affair in a message to staff on Sunday, and said that the board was launching an investigation into whether he was targeted by a foreign intelligence agency. The board said it has “confidence in Jensen,” and that it has “no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised.”
The New York Times first reported that the Chinese businesswoman was a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security, according to people briefed on the intelligence circulated in a memo among the Trump administration in the spring. China has called the allegation a smear.
While Nvidia says Huang will continue to lead the company during the probe, pressure is rapidly mounting on the chipmaker, whose technology has powered the first four years of the generative artificial intelligence boom. Leaders from both parties are calling for briefings, and Democrats poised to take control of both houses of Congress are calling for investigations and new legislation “to stop advanced AI chips from fueling China’s military,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wrote in a post on X on Monday.
Huang has outsized influence over Nvidia, and is the sole face of the company with no clear second-in-command. He’s also among the loudest champions of AI in the country, is critical to the financing of the broader infrastructure buildout and has a close relationship with President Donald Trump, giving Nvidia a front-row seat when it comes to discussions on AI policy, safety and regulation.
“The issue at Nvidia is that there is no clear successor to Jensen, and we had expected him to stay in this role for at least 10 more years,” analysts at Melius Research said in a Monday research note.
Stacy Rasgon, an analyst at Bernstein, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Monday that, “Jensen is Nvidia. Nvidia is Jensen.” He added that Huang “runs the thing pretty much top down,” and “sort of pulls all the strings.”
Nvidia didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nvidia has long maintained a flat, non-hierarchical organizational structure. Huang has deep involvement in the company’s day-to-day operations and frequently serves as its spokesperson in front of world leaders and at industry conferences. In addition to being co-founder and CEO, Huang is also Nvidia’s president.
In September of 2025, Huang told CNBC’s Becky Quick that he had as many as 60 direct reports. Internal records reviewed by CNBC reveal that, as of this week, he had 33 direct reports, including CFO Colette Kress, influential Chief Scientist Bill Dally, senior vice president of software engineering Dwight Diercks, and Ian Buck, best known as the inventor of Nvidia’s CUDA software.
Huang’s limited ownership
However, relative to some of his founder peers in tech like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk at SpaceX, Huang has minimal actual control. He owns just over 3% of the outstanding shares and is one of 11 members on a board that has no official chair.
And in the risk factors of Nvidia’s financial filings, Huang isn’t specifically identified as a key person. Rather, the company says, “we are highly dependent on the services of our longstanding executive team.”
“Failure to ensure effective succession planning, transfer of knowledge, and smooth transitions involving executives and key employees could hinder our strategic planning, execution, and long-term success,” Nvidia says.
Still, Huang’s influence is undeniable, so much so that the question of succession is one that’s hardly broached among analysts and investors.
Timm Schulze-Melander, an analyst at Rothschild & Co. Redburn, wrote in a Monday note that Huang could be forced to step back from the CEO role if the board’s investigation reveals “something materially more serious” than an undisclosed relationship.
Nvidia’s stock over past five days
But Schulze-Melander said Huang’s potential resignation isn’t a foregone conclusion of the investigation, pointing to the importance of his leadership at the company.
Nvidia’s board “needs to demonstrate independence and protect shareholders without destabilizing a company whose success is unusually dependent on its founder,” Schulze-Melander wrote. “Its initial statement suggests it is attempting to achieve both.”
Several analysts said the investigation could lead to governance changes at Nvidia, including putting a transition contingency plan in place.
The Melius analysts wrote that Nvidia has a “strong bench” of executive talent across its networking, hyperscale and high-performance computing businesses, along with “technical expertise” stemming from Chief Technology Officer Michael Kagan as well as Dally, the chief scientist.
“While these folks can keep the engine running, Jensen is one of a kind, and his energy will be needed to maintain confidence in the AI trade,” the analysts wrote.
— CNBC’s Kif Leswing, Kristina Partsinevelos and Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
WATCH: Here’s how experts are reacting to the Nvidia probe into Jensen Huang
