Kimberly Powell has spent more than 18 years climbing the ranks at Nvidia, from joining the chipmaker as a director in 2008 to becoming its vice president of healthcare. Now, the 48-year-old executive has found herself in the spotlight for a very different reason: her alleged relationship with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, 63, whom she reports to, according to a New York Times report.
The newspaper, citing five people who worked at Nvidia, reported that Huang and Powell were seen being affectionate at a hotel in San Jose, California, during the company's annual developer conference in March. Two of the sources said the interaction was captured on video.
The latest revelation comes amid a separate controversy surrounding Huang's affair with Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, whom US intelligence officials have linked to facilitating shipments of Nvidia chips to Chinese companies.
Meanwhile, Huang, Powell, and Nvidia declined to comment on the matter.
WHO IS KIMBERLY POWELL?
Powell joined Nvidia as a director in 2008 and has steadily risen through the company's ranks. According to her corporate profile, she initially worked on promoting the use of Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips in medical imaging.
Before joining the chipmaker, Powell worked as an engineer and later in product development at an electronics startup. She eventually approached Nvidia to discuss its computing chips. When the company recognised the potential applications of its technology in healthcare, it contacted her about joining, she said in an episode of the Lifers podcast published in August.
Powell described the opportunity as a "dream come true" during the interview.
According to her LinkedIn profile, she was promoted to senior director in 2016 and led a business development team focused on artificial intelligence. By late 2017, she had become Nvidia's vice president of healthcare.
She currently oversees both the hardware and software sides of the company's healthcare business, including technology related to medical imaging, life sciences and drug discovery.
"I pretty much live and breathe healthcare. So I'm talking about it all the time," Powell told Business Insider in 2025.
According to a New York Post report, Powell's online activity indicates that she is married and has two children. However, her husband's identity is not known.
KIMBERLY POWELL'S ASSOCIATION WITH JENSEN HUANG
Having joined Nvidia in 2008, Powell has worked with Huang for over 18 years. The company's chief executive co-founded the chipmaker in 1993 and has led it ever since.
In her August interview with the Lifers podcast, Powell spoke about Huang's longstanding interest in healthcare and his ambitions for the sector.
"Jensen has been passionate about the healthcare industry going back 20-plus years, and that was really fuelled by seeing just researchers who had dreams and aspirations to do something very, very meaningful and impactful in the healthcare domain and us potentially having the tools to do it, to achieve that goal," she said.
The New York Times reported that Huang and Powell's alleged relationship had been discussed within Nvidia. It also cited two people who said the pair were seen being affectionate at a hotel during the company's March conference.
According to the newspaper, Huang's security personnel noticed a bystander recording the interaction and subsequently took the person aside. In another report published by the Times, which cited three people, the person was offered a non-disclosure agreement.
WHAT DOES NVIDIA'S CODE OF CONDUCT SAY?
The reports have also brought attention to Nvidia's workplace conduct policies. The company's code of conduct, which begins with a letter from Huang, identifies personal relationships as one of the activities that could create a conflict of interest.
It asks employees to avoid situations in which their actions create conflicts and states that the company "promptly investigates reports of misconduct."
NVIDIA PLANS TO OUST JENSEN HUANG AMID AFFAIR CONTROVERSY
The controversy surrounding Jensen Huang's personal relationships has put his position as Nvidia CEO under scrutiny. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the company's board is planning to remove the 63-year-old billionaire following revelations about his extramarital relationships.
The development comes amid reports that Nvidia is preparing to remove Huang as CEO, sending the company's shares down around 8 per cent in after-hours trading. Including Wednesday's sell-off, Nvidia has lost nearly USD 600 billion in market value this week. Bloomberg has also reported that the company's board is working with an outside firm to identify potential successors, as it lacks a clear succession plan.
The potential ouster of Huang, 63, could trigger significant leadership uncertainty at the nearly $4 trillion company, which he co-founded in 1993 and transformed into the world's leading supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
