Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is facing a second allegation of an extramarital relationship, this time involving a senior executive at the company, amid an ongoing board investigation into his reported relationship with a woman suspected by US intelligence agencies of having links to Chinese intelligence.
According to The New York Times, Huang had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice-president of healthcare, who reported to him.
The newspaper cited five people who worked at Nvidia in its report on Wednesday. Two of them said a video showed Huang and Powell being affectionate at a hotel in San Jose, California, during an Nvidia conference in March. The New York Times said it had not seen the footage. Both Huang and Powell are married to other people.
When contacted by the newspaper over the reported relationship, Huang said, "I don't think you should be talking to me directly," before ending the telephone call, according to the report. Nvidia declined to comment, while Powell did not immediately respond to the newspaper's request for comment.
Powell joined Nvidia in 2008 and is currently the company's vice-president of healthcare. She oversees its worldwide healthcare business, including hardware and software platforms for accelerated computing, artificial intelligence and visualisation used in medical imaging, life sciences, drug discovery and healthcare analytics. She also represents Nvidia at technology conferences around the world.
The latest allegation comes as Nvidia's board investigates reports concerning Huang's relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed International. US intelligence agencies have reportedly identified Alice Huang as an asset of Chinese intelligence.
Huang recently acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife in a message to Nvidia employees, apologising to his family and colleagues. Although he did not name Alice Huang in the message, the New York Times had previously reported on their relationship.
Nvidia's board announced on November 8 that it would conduct an independent investigation into reports that Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. The company said a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, would oversee the inquiry. The board said it had no reason to believe that national security or Nvidia's secrets had been compromised.
The company subsequently retained the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to assist with the investigation.
China has rejected the espionage allegations. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun described the claims as groundless and a smear against the country.
(with inputs from media organisations)