Jensen Huang resigned as NVIDIA CEO, and the company's CFO Kress took over on an interim basis

Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of the Silicon Valley chip giant, resigned on Thursday, according to Nvidia's board of directors. The news brings an abrupt and shocking end to Huang's career at Nvidia, one of the most influential figures in the artificial intelligence boom. It comes after it was revealed he had extramarital affairs with a company executive who reported to him and a woman identified by U.S. intelligence agencies as a Chinese spy.

U.S. President Donald Trump has defended Huang over the past week, praising Huang for "doing a great job" at the helm of Nvidia. With the departure of the star CEO, Nvidia has entered a period of uncertainty, and his departure immediately caused shock in the global economy.

Nvidia's 10-member board said in a statement that Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent successor.

Nvidia controls about 90% of the market share of high-end chips, the core components of artificial intelligence projects. Huang's decision to leave after a lengthy board meeting on Wednesday will have widespread ripple effects. As one of the world's most valuable listed companies, Nvidia's stock price fell sharply at the opening, dragging down the entire market trend.

Nvidia, long known for its graphics processing chips, has become a mainstay in the development of artificial intelligence in recent years, putting it at the center of a battle between China and the United States for dominance in the field.

A series of reports in the New York Times revealed that Huang, 63, had an affair with a Chinese businesswoman named Alice Huang, who had been recruited by China's main intelligence agency to collect intelligence on Huang. The New York Times also reported that Trump had been warned about the relationship before but took no action.

U.S. officials suspect that Megaspeed, a Singaporean company where Huang was an executive, helped smuggle restricted chips into China. Huang Le did not respond to a request for comment, while China has denied the espionage accusations and called accusations of chip smuggling a "smear campaign."

Nvidia's board, which has long been deferential to its CEO, did not mention Huang's behavior in its statement. The board called his contributions to Nvidia "profound" and thanked him for his "immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry."

As the board begins its search for the company's next leader, Trump floats his own idea: former Apple CEO Tim Cook. He wrote on social media: "One legend succeeds another legend!"