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Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, looks out over the venue during the Nvidia GTC global AI conference in San Jose, California, on March 17 (local time). /Reuters-Yonhap News Agency

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned following a series of controversies, including an extramarital affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy.

Nvidia's board of directors announced the resignation in a statement on Nov. 12 (local time), saying that Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Colette Kress would serve as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent successor, according to The New York Times (NYT) and other news outlets.

Nvidia said Huang, who co-founded the company and is its fourth-largest shareholder with a stake of approximately 3.61%, would not remain on the board.

Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993, controls approximately 90% of the market for advanced semiconductors essential to artificial intelligence (AI) projects driving the U.S. economy. The United States and China are competing for dominance in the AI market powered by these chips.

The NYT previously reported that Huang had an inappropriate relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman who was allegedly recruited by Chinese intelligence agencies to gather information about the Nvidia CEO.

China has denied allegations that Alice Huang engaged in espionage. U.S. officials suspect that Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company where Alice Huang served as an executive, helped smuggle export-restricted semiconductors into China.

Nvidia shares plunged more than 13% at the start of trading on Nov. 12, putting downward pressure on the broader market.

                                                                                                             Kim Hyun-min