Jensen Huang has run Nvidia since he founded it in 1993. On Nov. 8 he told employees he had been unfaithful to his wife, and the board opened an independent investigation into reports that he had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. It said then that it had confidence in him.
Three days later The New York Times reported a second relationship, with an executive who reports to him. Within the hour The Wall Street Journal reported that directors were preparing to remove him, and Reuters and CNN said the board was meeting Wednesday night. Nvidia has not commented. The decision rests with ten people.
Eleven seats, one vote each
Select a director to read their record. Rearrange the board to see where its power sits.
See the board as a table
The seating is a diagram ordered by length of service, not the boardroom’s arrangement. Share counts come from the March 2026 proxy statement, adjusted for sales and gifts disclosed since, and are valued at the Nov. 11 close of $173.73. The stock view uses a logarithmic scale. Shareholder support is each director’s share of votes cast at the June 2026 annual meeting. Sources: Nvidia proxy statement and Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
What the bylaws require
Nvidia’s officers “hold office at the pleasure of the Board,” its bylaws say. The board needs no cause to remove one. It needs a count.
6 of 11Votes to remove an officer. The bylaws require a majority of the directors in office, so an absence or an abstention counts as a no. Huang’s own vote changes nothing.
24 hoursNotice for a special meeting. Any two directors can call one, with no need to state its purpose.
11 of 11Signatures to act without a meeting. Huang is a director, so the board cannot remove him on paper. It has to convene.
0Board votes that can take his seat as a director. Only shareholders can do that: a majority for cause, two-thirds without.
3.58%Huang’s share of the stock. Nvidia has a single class of shares, so its founder holds no veto.
$0Severance owed. He has no employment contract. Unvested stock awards, worth about $265 million in January, lapse when his service ends.
Sources: Nvidia bylaws as amended March 2024, sections 22 to 24, 29 and 32; certificate of incorporation; 2026 proxy statement.
How the count could fall
No director has said how they would vote. What follows is our estimate from the public record: each director is placed at the point where we judge they would stop backing Huang.
Choose what the board comes to believe
6
Votes to remove
Stays with Huang
Select any director to switch that vote.
Directors are ordered by our estimate of who would move first. The estimate is analysis and no director has confirmed any position. Removal requires six votes whether or not Huang votes.
What other boards did
Hired chief executives rarely survive a relationship with an employee. Founders last longer, and they tend to fall when investors, regulators or customers turn on them.
Hired chief executives
12 of 12left the job
Twelve prominent cases since 2005 that turned on a relationship with an employee or contractor. In nine, the public first heard of it when the exit was announced.
Founders and long-entrenched chiefs: days from first report to outcome
Left the job
Kept the job
Undecided
060120180 days
See all 20 cases as a table
Cases were chosen for comparability and are not a statistical sample. A Stanford review of 38 heavily covered cases of chief-executive misbehavior from 2000 to 2015 found that 58 percent ended in termination. Sources: company statements, securities filings and news reports.
We put it at three in four that he is out by year’s end
Three news organizations report that the board is preparing to act, and Bloomberg reports that it has engaged a search firm. Prediction markets put the chance of an announced exit by Dec. 31 near 89 percent.
We are lower. Every report so far is anonymous, the arithmetic leaves no vote to spare if his four oldest allies hold, and a founder with White House backing and no successor is the hardest kind of chief executive to remove.
Three estimates of an exit
PrecedentShare of 38 heavily covered misconduct cases that ended in termination
58%
Our estimateHuang is out as chief executive by Dec. 31
75%
Prediction marketsResignation or removal announced by Dec. 31, up from 16 percent before the Journal report
16%89%
0255075100%
Market figure is the average of Polymarket (88.5 percent) and Kalshi (89 to 90 percent) read at 9:25 p.m. Eastern on Nov. 11. Polymarket counts only an official announcement; a leave of absence would not qualify. Precedent figure: David Larcker and Brian Tayan, Stanford, 2016.
How we think it ends
Our rough odds for where things stand on Dec. 31.
75%
75% Out as chief executive, removed or resigned
10% On leave while the inquiry runs, with a temporary chief
10% Stays, with new limits such as an independent chairman
5% Stays, unchanged
Pushing him out
The Journal, CBS News and Semafor report that the board is preparing to act. The same board expressed confidence in him three days earlier.
A relationship with a subordinate cost every comparable hired chief executive the job.
Shares fell more than 8 percent after hours on Wednesday. Reuters puts the week’s loss near $600 billion.
A senator and a House member, one from each party, have said he should resign. Shareholders sued on Nov. 10.
Holding him in
There is no successor. Nvidia has no chief operating officer, and its filings describe no succession plan.
President Trump said on Nov. 9 that he believed Huang, and a day earlier that he should stay.
In a Blind poll of 232 employees taken before the second report, 88 percent wanted him to remain.
Four directors with decades beside him need only one more vote to block removal.
If he goes, no one is in line. Analysts and governance experts have floated Colette Kress, the finance chief since 2013; Ian Buck, a vice president who led the creation of Nvidia’s CUDA software; and Stephen Neal, the lead director, as a caretaker. Semafor reported that some directors favor Kress. Bloomberg reported that the board may name a temporary chief.
What to watch
A filingNvidia must disclose any decision to the S.E.C. within four business days.
Nov. 17Quarterly earnings. Watch who leads the call.
Nov. 18Three House committee chairmen asked Huang for a closed-door briefing and have raised a subpoena.
The inquiryWachtell, Lipton, the board’s outside counsel, has given no timetable.
How it got here
Oct. 29The Times reports that U.S. officials investigated Huang’s “close relationship” with a former executive of an Nvidia customer whom they had judged a Chinese intelligence asset. Nvidia calls his dealings with her “not unusual.”
Nov. 8Huang writes to employees: “I was unfaithful to my wife.” The board opens an independent investigation and says it “has confidence in Jensen.”
Nov. 10The independent directors hire Wachtell, Lipton and Joon H. Kim, a former acting U.S. attorney. Shares close at $168.89, down 9.5 percent in two sessions.
Nov. 11The Times reports a second relationship, with a vice president who reports to Huang. Nvidia declines to comment. The Journal reports that the board is preparing to oust him.