Nvidia CEO Huang reportedly mulling comeback just days after quitting amid scandal
One ally says Silicon Valley execs will lobby for Huang's return, claiming 'everyone that matters...loves him,' even as firm reels from fallout of extramarital affairs
Jensen Huang is considering a comeback as Nvidia’s chief executive and has discussed with confidants the possibility of returning, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.
One Huang ally told the FT they were putting together a “war room” of Silicon Valley executives to lobby for the former Nvidia chief’s return and would try to garner support from the White House.
“Everyone that matters in tech outside the frontier labs loves Jensen,” the person said, adding that the efforts had Huang’s support.
The report comes days after the FT reported that Nvidia’s board had approached British chipmaker Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas in its search for a potential successor to Jensen Huang.
Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress is acting as interim CEO while Nvidia looks for a permanent successor to Huang.
Huang stepped down on Thursday after revelations of extramarital affairs, including one involving a suspected Chinese spy, Alice Huang, that raised questions over exports of the company’s advanced AI chips to China. The scandal has plunged the chipmaker into crisis and sent shockwaves across an AI industry he helped bankroll.
Pressure on Huang ramped up further in the days leading up to his resignation, after reports that the 63-year-old billionaire had also had an affair with an Nvidia executive who reported to him directly.
Nvidia is due to publish its quarterly results on Tuesday.
Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on Nvidia on Sunday to explain whether it knowingly allowed its most advanced AI chips to reach China, saying this was more important than Huang’s affair with the alleged spy.
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday Morning Futures” three days after Huang resigned, Bessent said he wants to know if Nvidia used shell companies to dodge US restrictions and sell its most powerful chips to China.
The United States forbids sales to China of the most cutting-edge AI chips, hoping to stay ahead of the Chinese in the race to dominate artificial intelligence.
In late 2025, US President Donald Trump did authorize sales of Nvidia chips called H200s to the Chinese — but not the most advanced chips used to run AI models reshaping modern society.
“Nothing above the H200s can be sold to the Chinese,” Bessent said.
“What’s more important here,” he said, “is to examine whether Nvidia had a culture of compliance around the US export restrictions.”
He alluded to companies linked to Megaspeed, the Singapore-based data center company that Huang’s alleged lover Alice Huang once worked for.
“And who knew? Because I mean, these shell companies were obvious. They were being investigated. And did Nvidia use them as a workaround to sell chips to the Chinese?”
Of Alice Huang, he said: “It doesn’t matter to me whether she’s a spy or not. You know, Jensen’s foibles are his foibles.”
Bessent said he wanted answers from Nvidia and its internal investigation of Jensen Huang’s behavior within the next 10 days.
The United States suspects Megaspeed helped Chinese firms get around US export controls by buying Nvidia chips for its data centers in Southeast Asia, then routing them to China.
The Justice Department is carrying out a criminal probe.
Nvidia late last month said it had investigated these allegations last year and refuted them.
The Financial Times reported that four federal agencies pushed to have Megaspeed blacklisted by the Commerce Department run by Howard Lutnick, but the department did not do so.
“Many other departments were pushing for this, and Commerce had the pen,” Bessent said, repeating remarks he made Friday that suggest fissures in the Trump administration on this issue.
Jensen Huang and other Nvidia officials have agreed to testify in one session before representatives of three House of Representatives committees — Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and a special committee focusing just on China — Republican Congressman John Moolenaar, the chairman of that select committee, said Sunday on CBS. He said no date has been set yet.
“And we think that’s going to be a very important meeting to understand to what degree privileged information was accessed, also to what degree this potential alleged Chinese spy influenced Nvidia’s philosophy,” Moolenaar said.