Nvidia's board is expected to keep Jensen Huang as CEO while stripping back his autonomy, after an 8.8% intraday share plunge erased roughly $190 billion in market value following his acknowledgment of an affair with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive suspected of being a Chinese spy.

Shares of the most valuable company on the 2026 Fortune 500 closed down about 4.3% on Monday, one day after the board opened an independent investigation and simultaneously declared its confidence in Huang. A company spokesperson told Axios that Huang was committed to continuing as CEO without interruption.

For most chief executives, that sequence would end in a resignation letter. At Nvidia, both the will and the means to remove Huang are in doubt.

"I don't expect a 'stay or go' decision. It will be more like a 'stay, with less,'" Jason Schloetzer, an associate professor of accounting at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, told Fortune.

Schloetzer said the board could appoint a clear second-in-command, communicate more openly about succession planning, and reshuffle board seats to signal stronger oversight. Huang would remain chief executive, but under closer supervision.

Why can't Nvidia simply fire its CEO?

The company has never publicly identified a successor, and its structure explains why. Huang has built an unusually flat organization with dozens of direct reports and few layers of hierarchy, keeping himself at the center of the company since its founding in 1993.

"There needs to be disagreements and productive conflict and things like that," said Jo-Ellen Pozner, an associate professor of management at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business. She said the structure "had the effect of suppressing the emergence of potential successors, probably diminishing conflict and consolidating power in the hands of Jensen Huang."

Pozner called it "an extremely unusual organizational structure" that may have been designed partly to prevent internal political factions. The model suited a smaller company, she said; Nvidia has outgrown it.

Promoting an insider would be risky because investors, regulators and business partners would demand credibility and stability, she added. An outside hire carries its own risks.

Is the board independent enough to act?

Nvidia has no board chair. Huang works with lead independent director Stephen Neal to set board meeting agendas, while management prepares the information presented to directors, according to company filings. Neal can convene meetings of independent directors without Huang.

Of the 11 board members, three — including Huang — have served continuously since the 1993 founding, another joined in 1997, and Mark Stevens served from 1993 to 2006 before returning in 2008, according to the company's 2026 proxy statement.

Although Nvidia classifies all directors other than Huang as independent, Pozner questioned their willingness to hold him accountable.

"They've become billionaires because of their affiliation and ownership of this company. And just working together with the same CEO since the inception of the organization makes it impossible for them to act as outsiders," she said.

"It is unclear that a captive board like this — which in some ways is not unlike Tesla's — has the heart to question, censure, or sanction Huang, and it is doubtful that it has taken succession planning very seriously," she added.

The board's Sunday statement said a committee of independent directors, aided by outside counsel, would oversee the investigation. It said directors had expressed confidence in Huang before the work concluded and had no reason to believe national security or Nvidia's secrets had been compromised.

What pressure is coming from outside?

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Sen. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) issued a joint statement Monday demanding answers from Nvidia and tighter restrictions on advanced AI chip exports to China.
• Nvidia and Huang face a proposed shareholder class action alleging they misled investors about Huang's ties to Alice Huang.
• President Trump said the FBI was looking into the nature of the relationship.

"In most cases of scandal at major corporations, the CEO is either replaced or put on leave while investigations are carried out and appropriate responses decided," Pozner told Fortune.

Why 'stay, with less' may be the likeliest outcome

Some investors oppose any exit. Michael Monaghan, a partner at Founder ETFs, told Axios his firm would sell its Nvidia holdings if Huang departed, calling him in some ways "irreplaceable." He added: "We don't really believe there is such a thing as succession in these massive founder-led companies."

Polymarket traders put the odds of Huang resigning or being removed by year-end at 16%, Fortune reported.

One scenario could still cost Huang the job: a failure to be candid with his directors.

"Boards remove CEOs over candor issues," Schloetzer said. "What did he tell the directors, and when? Can he be trusted with board communications going forward?"

If Huang does leave, Pozner questions whether the current board can pick his successor, calling the failure to build one "very short-sighted and is exacerbating the danger that Nvidia is in." She suggested several long-serving directors could step down, replaced by experienced directors from outside Silicon Valley, creating a board capable of "selecting the right successor — even if they plan only a temporary substitution — to weather the coming storm."