The key facts
- Jensen Huang left the post of Nvidia chief on November 12 after more than three decades at the helm
- Scott Bessent believes the new CEO should be sought outside the company and demands answers from the board within 10 days
- Trump suggested Apple chief Tim Cook for the post
Founder's resignation and the authorities' reaction
Nvidia founder Jensen Huang stepped down as head of the company on November 12, having led it for more than three decades. His departure is linked to his admission of an extramarital affair with Alice Huang — the former head of the Singapore cloud company Megaspeed, whom media outlets describe as an alleged Chinese intelligence agent. After the resignation, US President Donald Trump suggested Apple chief Tim Cook for the post of Nvidia head.
Bessent: a 'radical reset' is needed
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Fox News interview that, in searching for a new leader, the board of directors should look for a candidate outside the company: in his words, given what had been happening inside Nvidia, a 'radical reset' of the leadership is needed. At the same time, he called Huang an innovator but stressed that technological leadership does not justify compliance violations: in his view, federal regulators in the banking sector would quickly remove executives in the event of similar oversight failures.
Questions about sales in Singapore
Bessent questioned whether Nvidia had ignored warning signs connected with shell companies in Singapore. He noted that the company stopped publishing separate regional sales figures after revenue in China fell while sales in Singapore grew, citing reports that only 1% of the chips sold there remained in the country. He called the espionage narrative itself a 'canard' and said his main concern was whether Nvidia's corporate culture encouraged 'seemingly unlawful sales' to inflate profits. He demanded that the board of directors and the company's outside lawyers provide answers within 10 days.
