Jensen Huang: third relationship reported, with another Nvidia employee

Why it matters for Nvidia

The news changes nothing about the outcome: Huang has already left both the CEO job and the board. It does make the governance question harder. Nvidia's code of conduct asks staff to avoid conflicts of interest, including those tied to personal relationships. Two relationships with employees raise the obvious question of what executives and directors knew, and they were still publicly backing him on Sunday.

The investigation handed to the law firm Wachtell was originally centred on the espionage angle. It could logically widen to cover these relationships, although Nvidia has not confirmed that.

Who runs Nvidia now, and what happened to the stock?

Colette Kress is the interim CEO. On the market, Nvidia shares fell as much as 14% at the open to $148.80, their lowest level in a year, after the official announcement of Huang's departure. They later recovered to a loss of about 5.6% in the afternoon.

The company's quarterly results, due on 17 November, will be Kress's first real test. In a week, the story has gone from an espionage suspicion to an inventory of a boss's private life. For Nvidia, the danger is a story that keeps producing new chapters just as the company has to show it can stand without its founder.