Washington, Nov 12:
Kimberly Powell, the 48-year-old vice president of healthcare at Nvidia Corp., has emerged at the centre of a widening governance crisis at the artificial intelligence chipmaker following reports of an extramarital affair with Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang.
According to media reports, Powell—one of roughly 60 executives reporting directly to the 63-year-old CEO—was seen being affectionate with Huang at a hotel in San Jose, California, during Nvidia’s annual GTC developer conference in March. A bystander who filmed the encounter was reportedly intercepted by Huang’s private security team and required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Both Huang and Powell are married to other people.
Joining Nvidia in 2008 after stints as a hardware engineer at DOME Imaging Systems and Planar Systems, Powell rose steadily through the ranks, becoming senior director of AI business development in 2016 and vice president of healthcare in late 2017. In her current role, she leads Nvidia’s global healthcare division, overseeing accelerated computing, AI platforms, and medical imaging technologies. The disclosure comes days after Huang admitted to a separate affair with Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed suspected by US intelligence of acting as a Chinese operative, prompting Nvidia’s board to weigh his removal.