Nvidia shares plunged 9% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after reports that the board is preparing to oust co-founder and chief executive Jensen Huang over two extramarital affairs — one involving a woman US intelligence officials suspect of being a Chinese spy.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Nvidia's board was preparing to remove its longtime chief executive. Reuters confirmed that directors were meeting to decide his future. No final decision had been announced.

The roughly $4 trillion chipmaker's stock is already down 33% from its October record high. Nasdaq-100 futures dropped around 1%, a signal that Huang's personal troubles were becoming a problem for the broader technology market and possibly the wider economy.

What does the first affair involve?

The crisis began with reports that Huang had an affair with Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based Nvidia customer operating data centers across Southeast Asia. US intelligence officials suspect Alice Huang of ties to China's Ministry of State Security, the country's principal civilian intelligence agency. Megaspeed has separately faced scrutiny over whether restricted Nvidia chips were diverted to China.

Nvidia's board said Sunday it had no reason to believe company secrets or US national-security information had been compromised. It also announced an independent investigation. That assurance is a statement of current belief, not a finding — the probe has yet to report.

Huang acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife and apologized to employees. Then came Wednesday's sequel.

What did the second revelation add?

The New York Times reported that Huang had also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare, who reported directly to him. The newspaper cited five people who had worked at the company.

The second affair adds questions about workplace relationships and executive judgment to an investigation that already involves potential national-security concerns. Neither Powell nor Megaspeed has publicly commented, and the record so far rests largely on unnamed sources.

Who could replace him?

Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 at a Denny's diner and turned it from a graphics-card maker into the dominant supplier of processors powering modern AI. The leather jacket, the packed conference appearances and the relentless advocacy of accelerated computing have made him one of technology's most recognizable executives.

That personal brand has been enormously valuable — and it exposes the company to key-man risk, the possibility that losing an influential executive could disrupt strategy, operations or investor confidence.

The numbers describe how concentrated that risk is:

• Nvidia has no obvious successor.
• Huang owns roughly 3.6% of the company.
• He has 60 direct reports, reflecting how closely the leadership structure revolves around him.

Bloomberg reported that the board has been working with an outside firm to identify potential replacements. CFO Colette Kress has been mentioned by market observers as a possible interim leader, although no appointment has been announced.

The board faces an uncomfortable choice. Keeping Huang could prolong the governance controversy. Removing him could create uncertainty at the very moment Nvidia is narrating a once-in-a-lifetime expansion of the AI industry.

What does this change for investors?

The financial consequences extend beyond Nvidia's own share price:

• CoreWeave fell 6% in extended trading, right after solid earnings results.
• Micron lost nearly 2%.
• Nvidia's rivals AMD and Broadcom rose roughly 4% and 3% respectively.

A leadership change would not suddenly make Nvidia's processors less useful or reduce demand. But it could complicate partnerships, investment commitments and strategic decisions in an industry where Huang has played an unusually powerful role. That matters because investors are already questioning whether the AI infrastructure boom can deliver enough profit to justify its enormous costs.

Nvidia's quarterly earnings are scheduled for November 17. Traders would normally focus on data-center revenue, gross margins and demand for next-generation chips. Those numbers still matter, but management's ability to address the leadership crisis may now command just as much attention — and no one at Nvidia has yet said how the board will vote.