20 facts about Kimberly Powell: Jensen Huang's Second Affair

On November 11, 2026, The New York Times published an explosive investigation revealing that Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang had an extramarital relationship with longtime senior executive Kimberly Powell, igniting intense scrutiny across Silicon Valley.

Powell, 48, serves as Nvidia Vice President of Healthcare and represents one of the company most entrenched leaders. With over 18 years at Nvidia, she has spearheaded efforts to bring accelerated computing into pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics, and genomics.

A graduate of Boston University, Powell started her professional career in 1999 as a hardware engineer. She developed specialized medical imaging systems before moving into strategic business development and high performance computing.

Powell joined Nvidia in 2008 to lead worldwide evangelism and go to market roadmaps for visual computing. Her initial mission was establishing Nvidia graphics cards as the premier engine for medical imaging equipment and higher education research labs.

In 2017, Nvidia elevated Powell to Vice President of its dedicated healthcare business unit. In that executive capacity, she oversaw the deployment of the Clara AI computing platform and brokered major partnerships with premier universities and global healthcare corporations.

As a senior vice president, Powell occupied an elite position within Nvidia corporate hierarchy, serving as one of roughly 60 senior executives who reported directly to CEO Jensen Huang without intermediary management layers.

Both Powell and Huang are married to other spouses, transforming their executive relationship into both a personal scandal and a corporate crisis that breaches executive governance standards at the world most valuable chipmaker.

According to five current and former Nvidia employees interviewed by reporters, rumors regarding an intimate connection between the chief executive and Powell had circulated quietly across company headquarters for multiple years.

Internal murmurs deepened as colleagues questioned Powell swift ascent to head healthcare strategy despite lacking formal medical degrees or deep clinical laboratory backgrounds, prompting whispers of favoritism inside technical divisions.

Sources reported that Huang and Powell were observed and recorded acting affectionately in public spaces at a luxury San Jose hotel during Nvidia major GTC developer conference in March, creating visible evidence of their private relationship.

Following the encounter at the San Jose hotel, corporate security personnel reportedly intervened. Officials approached the bystander who captured the video and requested that they execute a strict non disclosure agreement to suppress the recording.

Nvidia corporate compliance code strictly directs staff to avoid personal romantic ties that generate conflicts of interest. The policy specifically forbids romantic involvement between executive supervisors and their direct subordinates.

Just weeks before the scandal became public, Powell maintained a high profile professional presence, actively championing Nvidia Open Agent Safety Platform on professional networks and calling on global industries to build reliable AI frameworks.

As news organizations prepared to publish the investigation, Powell declined all media inquiries and abruptly pulled out of a prominent speaking appearance at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit.

When investigative reporters from The New York Times reached Jensen Huang by phone to request an on the record response regarding his relationship with Powell, the chief executive reportedly hung up the receiver without providing any comment.

The Powell investigation surfaced just days after Huang publicly confessed to an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a Singapore based tech executive under scrutiny by federal authorities over alleged ties to foreign intelligence networks.

Already overseeing an independent inquiry into the earlier scandal with outside counsel, the Nvidia board of directors convened an emergency session to deliberate whether Huang breaches of company policy warranted his removal from leadership.

Nvidia stock tumbled dramatically in after hours trading following the Powell disclosures, worsening an intense sell off that had already stripped hundreds of billions of dollars from the chipmaker market capitalization.

Facing unprecedented key man vulnerability, the board reportedly initiated engagements with an external executive search agency to evaluate potential successor candidates capable of steering the company if Huang departs.

With dual affairs uncovered, active federal inquiries underway, and strict corporate governance rules violated, the fallout leaves Powell executive standing and Nvidia future leadership facing their most dangerous crisis in corporate history.