Nvidia’s Powell pulls out of health summit after NYT report

Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's ↗ 2.87% vice president of healthcare, has dropped out of a panel she was due to join Thursday morning at the Milken Institute's Future of Health Summit in Washington. She withdrew hours after The New York Times ↗ 0.17% reported that she had an extramarital relationship with CEO Jensen Huang, who is her boss. CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell, who is moderating the session, announced the change Wednesday night on X. "Kimberly Powell had been set to speak at the opening session of the Milken Future of Health Summit tomorrow AM, on a panel I'm moderating. I just heard from organizers that she's cancelled her planned attendance," Tirrell wrote. Neither Nvidia nor Powell has said why she pulled out.finance.yahoo.com+1

The opening panel, "Engineering the Next Era of Human Health," was set to look at how technology could change medicine and drug development. The summit runs from November 11 to 13 in Washington.officechai.com+1

The Times report

The Times cited five people who had worked at Nvidia. Two of them said Huang, 63, and Powell, 48, were recorded on video being affectionate at a San Jose hotel during an Nvidia conference in March. The paper said it has not seen the video. Both executives are married to other people. When the Times called Huang and asked about Powell, he said, "I don't think you should be talking to me directly," and hung up. Nvidia declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal News Corp ↗ 0.40% also reported the relationship, citing a person familiar with the matter.nytimes.com+1

Powell joined Nvidia in 2008 and became vice president of healthcare in late 2017. She runs the company's healthcare and higher-education work, including medical imaging.nytimes.com

Board weighs Huang's future

The report came during a scandal that was already shaking the company. On Sunday, November 8, Huang admitted to an affair and apologized. Nvidia's board also opened an investigation into whether he had been the target of a "foreign intelligence effort." That followed reports that he had been romantically involved with Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed whom U.S. officials believe is a Chinese spy. Beijing has rejected the spying allegations.cnn.com+1

The board met late Wednesday to decide whether to remove Huang, according to Reuters. The Journal had reported that the company was preparing to oust him. The Times said the board began discussing his future after the paper contacted Nvidia about the second relationship. As of the Times' latest report, the board had announced no decision.nytimes.com+1

Nvidia shares fell sharply in after-hours trading Wednesday and kept falling in premarket trading Thursday. The company is scheduled to report quarterly results on November 17. Former SEC chairman Gary Gensler told CNN, "We're past the tipping point," and said he expects the board to remove Huang.afp.com+2