Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns amid affair reports as Wall Street swings

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned Thursday, the company announced, after reports that he had two extramarital affairs, one with an employee and one with a woman U.S. intelligence believed to be a Chinese spy. Shares initially plunged more than 13% before paring losses. Colette Kress, the chief financial officer, was named interim CEO, and Nvidia has not named a successor to Huang, who has led the chipmaker since its founding in 1993. The $4.2 trillion company is central to the AI build-out, and its planned $500 billion financing drive, backed by preliminary agreements with asset managers including Apollo, BlackRock and Blackstone, raises the question of whether a successor can carry it forward. On the same day, oil prices also swung sharply, and the S&P 500 dropped nearly 1% early before finishing down 0.3%.

The Washington Times, in a brief Thursday market report, leads with big swings in Nvidia's stock and oil prices weighing on Wall Street, and says the market appears to be absorbing them; its excerpt does not mention Huang. AP leads with the market's recovery, noting the S&P 500 erased its early loss. CNBC leads with the resignation and the risk to the financing plan. The New York Times, in an analysis piece headlined "Wall Street Sees the Writing on the Wall for Jensen Huang," treats his future as still under board consideration, says the board has met, floats a move to chief technology officer, and quotes Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey and Sarah Guo. Where CNBC reports the resignation as announced, the Times describes a possible removal, and it cites a value of nearly $4 trillion against CNBC's $4.2 trillion.