Elon Musk Backs Calls to Bring Jensen Huang Back as NVIDIA CEO

Digital Terminal. Huang stepped down as president, CEO and board member on November 12, ending a 33-year tenure that began when he co-founded the company in 1993. The board named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO and appointed director Harvey C. Jones as its first board chair. NVIDIA said it expects operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.

Scandal, investigation and congressional pressure

The resignation followed a drumbeat of reporting that began with ABC News detailing a suspected espionage plot involving Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed whom U.S. Intelligence reportedly suspects of being a Chinese spy. Jensen Huang acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife of over 40 years but did not name the individuals involved. Subsequent reports described two additional affairs with NVIDIA employees. NVIDIA's board announced an independent investigation into whether Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort, stating it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised. China's foreign ministry called the spying allegations "unsubstantiated" and "smears against China." U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department had not yet reached a conclusion on whether Alice Huang was a spy. Congressional scrutiny has intensified. Senator Tim Scott reiterated demands for Huang to testify, and the chairs of three House committees — Foreign Affairs, the China Select Committee, and Intelligence — wrote to Huang and NVIDIA general counsel Tim Teter requiring closed-door transcribed interviews on December 1 and 2, warning of subpoenas if they do not appear. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Under-Secretary Jeffrey Kessler have also been called to testify on December 3 over export-control oversight. The New York Times reported that President Trump was briefed on intelligence findings about a suspected espionage effort against Huang about a year ago and took no action; Trump said he did not wish he had acted sooner and continued to call Huang an "honourable guy."

Market reaction and succession speculation

NVIDIA shares fell 2% on Friday and notched a nearly 13% slide for the week, the worst weekly performance since April 2025, erasing the better part of $1 trillion in market value this month alone, according to Yahoo Finance Canada. Rivals Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom jumped 18.9% and 18.2% respectively for the week as investors wagered the turmoil would allow them to capture more of the AI chip market.

Metric	Figure	Source
NVIDIA weekly stock decline	nearly 13%	Yahoo Finance Canada
Market value erased this month	better part of $1 trillion	Yahoo Finance Canada
AMD weekly gain	18.9%	Yahoo Finance Canada
Broadcom weekly gain	18.2%	Yahoo Finance Canada
NVIDIA 4.5% bond yield (2031)	5.717%	CNBC
CoreWeave 9.75% bond yield (2031)	14.79%	CNBC

The Financial Times reported that NVIDIA's board approached Arm CEO Rene Haas as a possible successor. Haas spent seven years at NVIDIA before joining Arm in 2013 and became its CEO in February 2022. Arm shares fell 6.5% on the report. Reuters said it could not independently verify the approach, and both companies declined to comment.

AI financing and open-source questions

Huang's departure puts NVIDIA's role as a financier of AI infrastructure under scrutiny. The company had $36 billion in off-balance-sheet AI cloud agreements for neoclouds including CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN as of its July filing. Goldman Sachs analyst James Schneider said that while existing commitments are expected to be fulfilled, "going forward, it may be more difficult for the company to negotiate new multi-party investments among ecosystem partners at the same scale." CreditSights analyst Andy Li said creative deal-making and circular financing championed by Huang is likely to moderate. CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator countered that NVIDIA "is not one person" and that thousands of employees interface daily across technology, infrastructure and networking.

What to watch next

• December 1–2: House committee transcribed interviews with Jensen Huang and NVIDIA general counsel Tim Teter (subpoenas possible if they do not appear voluntarily).
• December 3: Hearing with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Under-Secretary Jeffrey Kessler on export-control oversight.
• Ongoing: Independent board investigation into whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort; no timeline for findings has been disclosed.
• Ongoing: Proposed class-action lawsuit accusing NVIDIA and Huang of defrauding shareholders.

Musk's support adds visibility to the campaign for Huang's return, but it does not change NVIDIA's official leadership arrangements. Kress remains interim CEO, and the board's next steps will determine whether the company pursues an external appointment, considers another internal candidate or revisits its current decision. As Digital Terminal noted, whether that pressure affects NVIDIA's succession process remains uncertain.

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