Nvidia's security team missed a leak that forced CEO Jensen Huang out

Nvidia's longtime chief security officer David Reber quietly resigned in August, and CEO Jensen Huang has since left the company amid questions about his extramarital relationships, including with an executive at Megaspeed, a firm suspected of funneling chips to China. A former intelligence officer says such leaks often stem from everyday conversations that corporate security teams are poorly equipped to detect. Reber, who cited health reasons and a Parkinson's diagnosis for his departure, was replaced by Saša Zdjelar, a former ExxonMobil and Salesforce executive. No public evidence links the security leadership changes to the Megaspeed matter, but Nvidia's top lawyer engaged with the government's inquiry over a year ago, and reports suggest colleagues knew of Huang's relationships with employees. Security specialists say affairs can create vulnerabilities foreign intelligence services exploit, often through conversation rather than hacking, and many corporate teams are underfunded and narrowly focused on physical and cyber threats. The board's independent investigation and federal inquiries may clarify what Nvidia's security team knew and whether it could have acted.