Nvidia After Jensen Huang: Forced Selling, an Interim CFO, and Tim Cook's Name in the Mix

Jensen Huang, one of the three engineers who co-founded Nvidia in 1993, was ousted after reports of two affairs, including one involving a woman suspected of spying for China. Huang had been under pressure since Sunday, when he acknowledged a romantic relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data center firm Megaspeed International. The DOJ has opened an espionage probe, and Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow reports that Huang retains no future association with the company.

Emily Chang, host and executive producer of Bloomberg's 'The Circuit,' was four days into a European shoot with Huang when his departure was announced, meaning the footage she captured is now his final major interview as CEO. That context adds unusual weight to whatever Bloomberg eventually publishes from those sessions.

The succession picture is unsettled. CFO Colette Kress has stepped in as interim chief executive while an outside search gets underway. Signals from the Trump administration have put Apple CEO Tim Cook's name into circulation as a candidate, though no appointment has been confirmed.

The departure is also creating forced selling in at least one corner of the market. The CIO of the Founders100 ETF confirmed the fund must divest its Nvidia stake, its third-largest position at over 6% of the fund, within 90 days. That is a rules-based, mechanical sale driven purely by index eligibility, since Huang's exit means Nvidia no longer qualifies as a founder-led company.

The ripple extended across the semiconductor sector on Thursday, dragging down shares of other chip companies alongside Nvidia. Analysts at Seaport Research Partners were among those weighing in on what a leaderless Nvidia means for the broader artificial intelligence supply chain, given how central Huang had been to the company's strategic direction.