Musk wants to hire Jensen Huang: Elon Musk says he would be honoured to recruit Nvidia CEO if board decides to replace him

Elon Musk has said he would be honoured to hire Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang if the chipmaker's board decides to remove him from the top job. Musk made the remark on X after a user urged him to hire Huang, as reports about the Nvidia chief's alleged relationships brought his position at the company under scrutiny.

"That would be an honor," Musk wrote on Wednesday evening, responding to a post by an X account ZeroHedge that said: "Elon please hire Jensen."

The exchange followed a report by The Wall Street Journal that Nvidia's board was preparing to consider Huang's future after revelations about two alleged extramarital relationships. The reports have put the 63-year-old executive, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993, at the centre of a controversy involving the company's leadership and national security concerns.

NVIDIA Health VP Kimberly Powell named in second relationship report

The latest development came after The New York Times reported that Huang had allegedly been involved in an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare.

The newspaper cited five people who worked at Nvidia. According to its report, Powell, who reports to Huang, was allegedly involved with the CEO. Two sources also told the newspaper that the pair had been seen behaving affectionately at a hotel in San Jose, California, during an Nvidia conference in March.

Powell has worked at Nvidia since 2008 and currently leads its global healthcare business. Her responsibilities include the company's hardware and software platforms for accelerated computing, artificial intelligence and visualisation used in medical imaging, life sciences, drug discovery and healthcare analytics.

She previously led Nvidia's higher education and research business, along with strategic evangelism programmes, Nvidia AI Labs and the Nvidia Inception programme for startups.

Reuters also reported the allegations, while saying it could not independently verify them.

Earlier report involved Alice Huang, a woman suspected of spying for China

The latest allegations follow an earlier controversy involving Alice Huang, a Chinese woman whom US intelligence officials reportedly suspect of working for China's intelligence services.

According to reports by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Jensen Huang had an alleged relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data company Megaspeed. The two are not related.

US officials reportedly suspected that Alice Huang was sharing information with Beijing while working with Nvidia on data centre projects in Asia. The allegations also raised questions about possible shipments of advanced Nvidia chips to Chinese companies.

Nvidia said it was investigating whether its CEO had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. Huang acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife in a message to employees and said he took responsibility for his actions, according to Reuters.

What happens to CEO Jensen Huang at Nvidia?

The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's board was preparing to consider Huang's future following the two relationship reports, not a confirmed decision to remove him.

Reuters said it could not independently verify the reports about the alleged relationships or the board's plans.

Huang has led Nvidia since co-founding the company in 1993. The chipmaker has become a major supplier of processors used to develop and run artificial intelligence systems, making his leadership a significant part of its business.

Musk's response has now added the prospect of a role for Huang at one of the companies run by the SpaceX and Tesla chief if his position at Nvidia changes.