Spy Scandal Fells Huang; Trump Pushes Tim Cook for Nvidia

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (Focus Pakistan)  - Jensen Huang resigns from Nvidia, and President Donald Trump already has a replacement in mind. The chipmaker’s board picked someone else.

On Thursday, Trump said former Apple chief Tim Cook should take over at Nvidia. His post came a day after Jensen Huang quit the company he co-founded 33 years ago. Huang left after revelations of two affairs, one of them with a businesswoman US officials suspect of spying for Beijing.

“Now that Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place — TIM COOK of Apple,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “A Legend replaces a Legend!”

Trump has no say over who runs the world’s most valuable chipmaker, and Nvidia’s directors had already acted. In a regulatory filing, the board said it accepted Huang’s resignation on November 11 with immediate effect. It named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress, 59, as interim chief executive while it searches for a permanent successor. Kress keeps her CFO duties. The board also made Harvey C. Jones its first-ever chair.

Kress faces her first test right away. Nvidia reports third-quarter results on Tuesday, November 17, as planned, and she will lead the earnings call as the company’s public face.

The crisis centres on Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le. She is a Chinese citizen and a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, a firm US authorities suspected of helping China get around export bans to obtain Nvidia’s advanced AI chips. No one has charged her or Megaspeed with any crime, and the two Huangs are not related. Beijing has called the spying claims groundless speculation.

Jensen Huang admitted he had been unfaithful to his wife, and Nvidia’s independent directors opened an investigation. At first, the company insisted his contacts with Alice Huang amounted to routine customer meetings.

Capitol Hill rejected that explanation. Three Republican committee chairs, Brian Mast, John Moolenaar and Rick Crawford, asked Huang to appear at a closed-door briefing on November 18. They want him to explain his dealings with her and Nvidia’s safeguards against foreign espionage. Asked whether he would subpoena Huang if he did not respond, Mast said “absolutely.”

Huang has turned Congress down before. In June, he declined Senator Elizabeth Warren’s invitation to testify on Nvidia’s China sales.

Trump defended Huang this week. He called him “an amazing guy” who was “suffering greatly” and said he had no idea Alice Huang was allegedly working for Beijing.

Reports this week cast doubt on that account. They said Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed the president on the allegations aboard Air Force One in May, shortly before the plane picked up Huang in Alaska for the flight to Beijing. Trump has treated the Taiwanese-born executive as a close adviser throughout his second term.

Cook handed Apple’s chief executive role to John Ternus in September but still serves as executive chair. He has spent years working to win Trump over.

In August 2025, Cook stood in the Oval Office and announced that Apple would raise its US investment pledge to $600 billion while Trump threatened steep tariffs on foreign-made tech. He also brought a gift: a custom-engraved glass piece from iPhone glassmaker Corning, set on a 24-karat gold base.

The gesture paid off. Trump had once attacked Apple for building iPhones abroad, but he has since showered Cook with praise. Cook flew with Trump to China in May. In September, both he and Huang dined at the White House state banquet for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

For now, Jones and the Nvidia board will choose the next chief executive. Truth Social has no part in that decision.