INTERNATIONAL DESK — The chain of events that ended Jensen Huang’s 33-year run as Nvidia CEO was set in motion by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio sent President Donald Trump a memo warning him about Huang’s relationship with a woman US intelligence officials suspect of being a Chinese intelligence asset.
The memo was based on a CIA report, but Rubio recast its findings “in his own more assertive terms,” a person familiar with the matter told the Post. The memo’s findings later leaked to the media, triggering the chain of events that ended Huang’s career at Nvidia. Huang admitted the affair, and the board opened an investigation into possible security risks.
Huang resigned on Thursday after reports of another affair, this time with a subordinate at Nvidia. The allegations against the woman have not been publicly established. At the G7 meeting in Paris, Rubio declined several questions about his role in alerting the White House.
Huang had close ties with Trump and pushed hard for chip sales to China. In December 2025, Trump approved sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China in exchange for a share of the revenue. Many national security officials saw such sales as a threat.