Nvidia stock tumbles after CEO Jensen Huang resigns

Nvidia’s stock tumbled on Thursday morning after the tech company announced the resignation of CEO Jensen Huang.

Shares of Nvidia dropped about 5% early Thursday, recovering some of the losses from a plunge of more than 13% at the open of trading.

Colette Kress, current executive vice president and chief financial officer, will serve as interim CEO, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

“NVIDIA’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years,” Kress was quoted as saying in the statement.

Huang’s resignation comes amid reports of Huang’s reported affair with a Chinese businesswoman and suspected spy named Alice Huang.

The Nvidia board is launching a search for a permanent CEO, and it will consider both applicants from within and outside the company, the company’s statement said.

The broad market indexes were mixed on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.1%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.4%.

Nvidia soared to prominence in recent years by selling many of the chips behind the artificial intelligence boom. The company has defied skeptics with strong revenue quarter after quarter, despite political backlash against data centers and looming concerns about an AI financial bubble.

While Nvidia stock has performed well over a long-term period, it had struggled to keep rising of late, even before the scandal surrounding Huang. Shares of Nvidia are up a staggering 429% over the past five years, even though the stock has fallen about 17% compared to a year ago.

On Sunday, Nvidia said that its board launched an independent investigation “in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.” Huang later admitted in an internal message to Nvidia staff that he had been “unfaithful to his wife.”

Amid the fallout from the allegations and the letter, The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Huang also had an extramarital relationship with an Nvidia executive who reports to him.

The outlet, citing sources within the company, reported that Huang and his colleague were allegedly captured on video being affectionate at a hotel during an Nvidia conference in March. The New York Times said it had not seen the video.

ABC News has not been able to verify the reporting or the alleged video.

Following the reporting about Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, who are not related, the Chinese government denied the allegations, calling them “baseless and purely slanderous smears against China.”

Neither Alice Huang nor her employer, Megaspeed International, responded to ABC News’ request for comment after the New York Times story broke. Alice Huang is currently living in China, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

On Sunday, Nvidia shared with ABC News the internal message Jensen Huang sent to employees, in which he apologized for the affair’s impact on his wife and family.

“My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” the message said, in part. It did not name Alice Huang nor any other person.

This is a developing story. 

ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.