November 12, 2026, (Inside AI) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is facing a second extramarital affair allegation, this time with a company vice president, as the chipmaker's board investigates his ties to a woman U.S. officials suspect is a Chinese intelligence asset. The allegation, first reported by The New York Times, involves Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare, according to five people at the company who spoke to the newspaper.
The disclosure lands at a perilous moment for the world's most valuable semiconductor firm. Nvidia's board has already commissioned an investigation, led by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, into Huang's relationship with Alice Huang, whom U.S. officials have identified as a Chinese intelligence asset. Now a second relationship allegation raises fresh questions about governance at a company whose chips underpin the global artificial intelligence boom.
Two of the five people said a video showed Huang, 63, and Powell, 48, being affectionate at a hotel in San Jose, California, during an Nvidia conference in March. The Times said it had not seen the footage. Both executives are married to other people.
When contacted by telephone on Wednesday about Powell, Huang said, "I don't think you should be talking to me directly," before ending the call, the newspaper reported. Nvidia declined to issue a statement on the matter. Powell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the five people cited, Huang's relationship with Powell has been a subject of discussion inside Nvidia. The company's code of conduct tells employees to avoid conflicts involving personal relationships and says reports of misconduct are investigated promptly. Many companies restrict relationships between managers and employees who report to them. In this case, Powell reported to Huang.
Who Is Kimberly Powell?
Powell joined Nvidia in 2008 and oversees efforts to apply its chip technology to higher education and health care, with a particular focus on medical imaging devices, according to the company's website. She graduated from Boston University and then attended MIT Sloan School of Management in 2007.
Her LinkedIn profile lists a promotion to senior director of artificial intelligence business development in 2016. By late 2017, she had become vice president of health care. She also represents Nvidia at technology conferences worldwide. At Nvidia's annual GTC developer conference in San Jose in March, Powell discussed how AI could support advances in health care and biology. Her presentation included cartoon images of Huang, the Times reported.
The second allegation compounds pressure on Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and built it into a leading supplier of artificial intelligence chips. His personal relationships came under scrutiny after the Times reported last month that U.S. officials had identified a Chinese executive close to him as an intelligence asset. Following Huang's acknowledgement of that affair this month, Nvidia's board commissioned the Wachtell investigation. Republican leaders of three influential House committees have also sought a closed-door briefing with him about his interactions with Alice Huang.
China has rejected the espionage allegations. Alice Huang has not responded to requests for comment, according to the report.
The affair allegations arrive as Nvidia navigates a complex geopolitical landscape. The company's chips are central to the U.S.-China technology rivalry, and Huang's contacts with Chinese nationals could draw congressional scrutiny. The board's investigation, led by a prominent law firm, signals that directors are treating the matter seriously. Yet the lack of a public statement from Nvidia leaves investors and policymakers without clear answers about the scope of the probe or its potential impact on Huang's role.
Huang's leadership has been inseparable from Nvidia's rise. The company's market value has soared past $3 trillion, making it one of the most valuable firms in the world. Any suggestion of instability at the top could unsettle markets already sensitive to AI-related volatility. The board's handling of the investigation will be closely watched as a test of corporate governance in the AI era.
Read: Jensen Huang's Spy Scandal Stuns Taiwan, His Birthplace
For now, the allegations remain unproven, and the board's investigation continues. The coming weeks will reveal whether the scrutiny ends with Huang's personal conduct or extends to Nvidia's internal controls and its exposure to foreign influence. Either way, the story has moved from the tabloids to the boardroom, and the stakes could hardly be higher.
Shamil has a low tolerance for AI that only works in controlled demos. He covers agentic systems and generative AI with the skepticism of someone who has seen too many “revolutionary” tools quietly disappear six months after launch.
