Darrell Brock

Jensen Huang survived a suspected Chinese spy scandal and an FBI review on Monday. Her name is Kimberly Powell. 72 hours after Nvidia's board backed him, a second affair with his own Vice President of Healthcare and a San Jose hotel NDA just pushed his 33-year reign to the brink of an emergency ouster. This is the story of how Jensen Huang survived a foreign espionage crisis on Monday, only to face a boardroom firing squad by Wednesday night over what happened inside his own building. 2008 - 2017 - Kimberly Powell joins Nvidia in 2008 and spends nearly 2 decades climbing the ranks, calling the job a "dream come true" - by late 2017, she is promoted to Vice President of Healthcare, overseeing Nvidia's global medical imaging and AI drug discovery business - because Jensen Huang doesn't use a COO or a succession plan, Powell becomes 1 of roughly 60 executives who report directly to the CEO March 2026 - during Nvidia's annual GTC developer conference in San Jose, 48-year-old Powell takes the stage using cartoon depictions of Jensen Huang in her presentation slides - at a nearby San Jose hotel where Nvidia executives are holding meetings, 63-year-old Huang and Powell are seen being affectionate in public view - 1 bystander captures the interaction on a phone, according to 3 people briefed on the incident - Huang's personal security detail spots the bystander filming, sequesters them on the spot, and offers a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) to keep the video quiet November 8 - November 9, 2026 - after The New York Times and Financial Times expose Huang's separate affair with Alice Huang (whose Singapore firm Megaspeed bought $4.8 billion of Nvidia chips before US intelligence flagged her as a Chinese MSS asset), Huang emails 30,000+ employees admitting he cheated on his wife of 43 years - Nvidia's Board publicly backs him ("The Board has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team") while hiring law firm Wachtell Lipton to run an independent inquiry - President Trump backs him after a phone call on Monday ("He told me he had no idea that woman was a spy and I really believe him"), and by Wednesday's close, NVDA rebounds +2.92% to $173.73 November 11, 2026 - Tonight - The New York Times calls Jensen Huang directly after 5 former Nvidia employees confirm his second affair with direct subordinate Kimberly Powell - Huang tells the reporter: "I don't think you should be talking to me directly" and hangs up the phone, while Powell cancels her scheduled speech in Washington, D.C. - within hours, The Wall Street Journal reports Nvidia's Board of Directors is preparing to meet as early as tonight to oust the co-founder who has run the company since 1993 and has started consulting external headhunters - NVDA plunges 8.22% after hours to $159.45, erasing roughly $340 billion in hours (over $650 billion since Sunday), while Kalshi odds of his exit before 2027 vertical-spike from 16% to 87% In corporate America, a board can defend a founder who claims he was fooled by a foreign spy outside the building. No board on Wall Street can defend a CEO who sleeps with his own direct report and uses corporate security to silence a witness with an NDA, the exact governance line that took down Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in 2018 and McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook in 2019. Jensen Huang spent 33 years building a $4 trillion monopoly with 60 direct reports, 0 succession plan, and no second-in-command, turning himself into the single point of failure for the entire global AI trade.