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Nvidia’s longtime boss is out after a scandal involving alleged espionage, workplace relationships, and a board investigation—quite a succession plan.
Jensen Huang Steps Down As Nvidia CEO After Board Investigation
Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia’s chief executive and a board member on Thursday, effective immediately. The company named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress interim CEO and said it would consider internal and external candidates for a permanent replacement. Huang’s departure comes four days after Nvidia announced an internal investigation into his relationship with Alice Huang, who is alleged to have ties to China’s Ministry of State Security. The Chinese government has rejected claims that she was a spy.
The board’s move followed reports about both the alleged intelligence operation and another relationship involving Huang. The New York Times reported that Alice Huang had been recruited to gather information on the Nvidia chief, and later reported that Huang allegedly had a relationship with a direct report. A source familiar with the board’s decision told WIRED that the subordinate relationship and Nvidia’s dealings with Megaspeed, a Singapore-based AI company where Alice Huang previously held a senior role, likely mattered more to the board than the espionage allegations. The board has not publicly detailed its reasons for Huang’s departure.
Huang acknowledged an affair in a companywide email on Sunday, apologized to his family and Nvidia employees, and pledged to cooperate with the investigation. He has been married to Lori Huang since 1985, and their two children also work at Nvidia. WIRED reported that Huang began working with a crisis public-relations firm last year, and that by October 2025 its consultants were included on press inquiries concerning him, whether personal or professional.
The scrutiny also touches Nvidia’s business and Huang’s policy advocacy. The US Commerce Department was reportedly investigating whether Megaspeed helped Chinese firms evade American export controls through a network of subsidiaries; the investigation was later halted and transferred to the Justice Department after Nvidia’s general counsel inquired about it. Huang has criticized export controls, arguing they constrain the market for US chips and encourage China to build its own competitors. He has also cultivated a relationship with President Donald Trump while advocating for policies that could benefit Nvidia, including access to the Chinese market.
Huang cofounded Nvidia in 1993 with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, initially building the company around computer graphics. After AlexNet’s high-profile 2012 win in computer vision, Nvidia shifted toward chips for artificial intelligence, and demand for its GPUs helped propel its shares during the AI boom. The company became the first to reach a $4 trillion valuation in 2025 and held about 90 percent of the GPU market as of September 2026. Nvidia’s chips and CUDA software helped build its position, alongside Huang’s forceful leadership; the board now has to find out how much of that formula depends on Huang himself.
Editor: Nvidia built a company around chips that power the AI boom. Replacing the person who built it may be the board’s toughest upgrade yet.
Source: WIRED
A Tomb Guard had to remind the defense secretary’s entourage that Arlington is a place for solemn reflection, not a photo-op afterparty.
Tomb Guard Reprimands Hegseth’s Group After Veterans Day Photos
A soldier guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier rebuked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s group after a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. Video shows Hegseth, his wife Jennifer, and several aides taking photos on the empty steps before the tomb. As the group moved away, a loud laugh was heard, and the guard called out that visitors must maintain “an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times.” The tomb is the resting place of unidentified service members from World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.
The Pentagon said the guard was enforcing the rules, and described the reminder as respectful. Spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldier “correctly and respectfully reminded everyone to maintain decorum.” The tomb has been guarded around the clock by soldiers from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Regiment, known as “The Old Guard,” since 1948. Hegseth and his staff were at the cemetery for a broader ceremony attended by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
The incident came a day after Hegseth narrowly survived an effort by lawmakers to impeach him. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, led the effort with Democratic support, but critics said they may try again after Democrats take control of Congress in January. At a news conference Tuesday, Hegseth argued he had committed none of the constitutional “high crimes” required for removal. He also said the impeachment resolutions told service members that “their service was a crime,” calling the effort “sabotage.”
Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin accused Hegseth of showing contempt for service members and disrespecting the tomb’s sanctity. The Arlington incident also recalled a 2024 controversy, when a Trump campaign staffer reportedly shoved a cemetery employee who tried to stop people from filming and photographing a ceremony honoring US troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trump later posted a video from the cemetery criticizing the Biden administration over the Afghanistan withdrawal. Federal law prohibits campaign or election-related activity inside national military cemeteries.
The guard’s reprimand was aimed at maintaining decorum at one of the country’s most solemn memorials. The available video and Pentagon response establish that the group was reminded of the rules, while the article does not report any further discipline or formal action. The setting made the moment especially conspicuous: the tomb’s guard has maintained a continuous watch for decades, whatever the weather or who happens to be visiting.
Editor: Arlington already has a strict protocol. It shouldn’t need a reminder that solemnity applies to the people with the biggest titles, too.
Source: AP News
A Brooklyn building collapsed into a construction site, leaving rescuers to search unstable rubble while the casualty count kept climbing.
Brooklyn Building Collapse Kills Eight, Injures At Least 19
Eight people were killed and at least 19 injured when a three-story building in Brooklyn collapsed Wednesday, according to New York City officials. The injured included three firefighters, and officials said children were among the casualties. By Thursday morning, four people were in critical condition, five had serious but non-life-threatening injuries, and 10 had minor injuries. The cause of the collapse remains under investigation.
Rescue crews faced unstable wreckage and uncertainty about how many people might still be trapped. Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said several people were caught when the building fell into an adjacent construction site, and warned that the operation would be prolonged. More than 250 emergency, medical, and police responders went to the scene after the alarm was raised shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday. Fire Chief John Esposito said teams would remain for days to search the site, despite the risk of a secondary collapse.
Officials said construction workers were on site and had been doing excavation work that day. Rescuers used pickaxes, power saws, and search dogs to work through the rubble. Video showed survivors being pulled out, including a pregnant woman; her husband told local media she was six months pregnant and said he was relieved she had been found alive. The fire department said seven children were among the casualties, but did not provide further details.
The city opened a reception center at the Flatbush YMCA and urged residents to avoid the area while hundreds of workers remained on site. Authorities shut down water mains early Thursday to support rescue operations, affecting about 100 buildings. Rain showers were forecast for Thursday afternoon, though officials had not said how weather might affect the work. New York’s emergency response had shifted from the initial scramble to a difficult, days-long search.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said his office was working with the city’s Buildings Department and law enforcement to determine whether criminal conduct contributed to the collapse. The investigation will examine the circumstances at the site, including the excavation work, but officials have not announced a cause. For now, crews are still searching the wreckage while families and neighbors wait for answers.
Editor: When a building comes down during excavation, “we’re investigating” is only the beginning of the work the city owes its residents.
Source: The Washington Post
Mississippi just sent a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in decades—and helped turn a rough midterm for Republicans into a real power shift.
Scott Colom Defeats Cindy Hyde-Smith In Mississippi Senate Upset
Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s Senate race, according to media projections. Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, is set to become the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction. The result gives Democrats a 55–44 Senate edge, with Alaska’s race still undecided in the figures reported by Reuters. Mississippi had not elected a Democratic senator since John Stennis in 1982.
Colom’s win was part of a broader Democratic sweep that leaves President Donald Trump facing a Congress controlled by the opposition party. Democrats also gained 41 House seats, with 13 races still uncalled in Reuters’ tally. A Democratic majority could block partisan legislation and investigate the administration. The Mississippi contest was among the last Senate races to be projected, with Colom leading by about 0.5 percentage point, or roughly 4,600 votes.
Colom’s campaign leaned into voters’ frustration over the cost of living. One ad mocked Hyde-Smith’s suggestion that consumers could choose other proteins as beef prices rose, with voters responding, “Pick another protein? I’d rather pick another senator instead.” Colom also told Reuters that some Mississippi voters felt betrayed by Trump policies, including the war in Iran, which he said had raised fuel prices. Rallies with Democratic senators Raphael Warnock and Cory Booker gave his campaign a boost.
Hyde-Smith, 67, was appointed to the Senate in 2018 and won a special election that year. She had led consistently in opinion polls in a state Trump carried by nearly 23 points in 2024, and Trump campaigned for her near the end of the race. After the result was projected, she congratulated Colom and wished him well in a social media video. Colom told supporters that he kept faith even when donors were hard to reach and the campaign felt like a long shot.
The victory carries added weight in a state shaped by slavery, segregation, and the civil rights movement. Mississippi became reliably Republican after the political realignment that followed that movement, and many of its defining battles took place there. The last Black candidate elected to the Senate from Mississippi was former slave Blanche Bruce, in 1874. Colom’s election puts a new marker in that history—and gives Democrats another vote in a narrowly divided Senate.
Editor: “Pick another senator” turned out to be more than a punchline. Mississippi voters made it the campaign strategy.
Source: Reuters
Washington has taken equity stakes in 41 companies during Trump’s second term—and now those deals may get a closer look from Congress.
Cato Dashboard Tracks Federal Stakes In 41 Companies
The federal government has announced or secured ownership stakes in 41 private companies during President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a new Cato Institute dashboard. The deals span energy, minerals, semiconductors, and quantum computing. The dashboard tracks the holdings and provides details about the terms of individual deals. Cato says the project is intended to make the government’s expanding portfolio easier to scrutinize.
The holdings could face congressional investigations after Democrats take control of both chambers in January. Analysts cited in the MarketWatch report expect companies that granted stakes to the administration to face scrutiny from Democratic-run committees. Those companies include Intel, MP Materials, USA Rare Earth, GlobalFoundries, U.S. Steel, and Westinghouse Electric. The new Congress could also examine the administration’s role in the deals.
Cato vice president Scott Lincicome argues that government ownership risks replacing market judgment with political decisions and weakening regulatory independence. He said Washington has historically refereed or supported businesses, but has not regularly entered the market as an owner. The dashboard is a way to document how far the government’s position has changed. Some Democrats, however, have voiced support for strategic government investments in companies.
The debate is already reaching Congress. A coalition of advocacy groups sent lawmakers a letter Tuesday urging them to ensure that an annual defense bill expected to pass next month does not authorize the Defense Department or other agencies to acquire equity stakes in private companies. The letter went to senior Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. The measure could become an early test of whether lawmakers want to limit the practice.
The Cato project provides a public inventory of deals that might otherwise be scattered across separate announcements and company filings. Its critics see direct government ownership as a risk to market discipline and regulatory independence; supporters of strategic investment see a possible role for government in key industries. With a new Congress preparing to take office, the companies and the administration may soon have to explain the terms and rationale behind those stakes. Washington’s new portfolio has acquired shareholders’ most familiar feature: people asking what, exactly, they own.
Editor: When the government buys a seat at the corporate table, expect Congress to ask who picked the menu.
Source: MarketWatch
The Trump coalition looked durable until voters started leaving it—and Republicans discovered that gerrymandered maps can’t make a shaky coalition solid.
How The MAGA Map Cracked
The Republican coalition Donald Trump built over three elections fractured in last week’s midterms, according to Semafor’s David Weigel. Democrats won the national House vote by 14 points, and the shift reached areas Republicans had counted on to anchor their power. Rural counties that had moved toward Trump also shifted back toward Democrats. The result has put Republican redistricting plans—and assumptions about the electorate—under new pressure.
North Carolina offered the clearest example of how badly those assumptions could fail. Seven districts that backed Trump by double digits in 2024 elected Democrats, including a seat drawn to favor Republican Rep. Tim Moore. Democrat Lakesha Womack won by expanding her party’s margin in Mecklenburg County and cutting Republican margins in rural counties. In Indiana, South Carolina, and Utah, Republicans tried to redraw maps but failed; the article argues that the proposed districts in those states could also have favored Democrats this year.
The GOP’s strategy rested on a coalition that had held together through five elections over eight years. Trump brought rural voters, parts of the Midwest, and some nonwhite working-class voters into a Republican coalition, while Democrats remained concentrated in cities and suburbs. Republicans then drew districts around the expectation that rural voters would reliably overwhelm Democratic urban centers. But Democrats competed more effectively for those rural voters, and the map stopped behaving as its architects expected.
Democrats also changed their pitch, offering a less culturally left-wing message to voters who had drifted right. In North Carolina, Democratic Party chair Anderson Clayton said Republicans had been the only party consistently communicating and organizing in rural communities. That advantage, she argued, did not mean those voters were permanently committed to Republican politics. Democrats also made gains among Latino voters in the Rio Grande Valley and South Florida, where Republicans had treated them as reliable MAGA supporters rather than swing voters.
The new results are likely to alter both parties’ calculations as they prepare for another round of redistricting. The article says Republicans learned that efforts to reduce Black voters’ influence can increase Black turnout against them, without producing a compensating surge among white voters. The shift could affect races in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia, as well as future map fights elsewhere. A coalition can dominate for years and still prove temporary—especially when the maps are built on the assumption that its voters have nowhere else to go.
Editor: Republicans drew the maps as if voters were permanent fixtures. Turns out, people can move—even without changing houses.
Source: Semafor
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