New Delhi, November 9 (IANS). Nvidia's board has the power to remove the company's founder and CEO Jensen Huang from office without any criminal findings by a majority vote of directors. However, this will also require the permission of the shareholders. This information was given in the report released on Monday.
According to a report by NDTV Profit, Nvidia's rules, updated on March 12, 2024, provide that any officer of the company can be removed, with or without cause, by a majority vote of the directors.
Under Nvidia's rules, a director can be removed 'for cause' by a majority vote of shareholders. Whereas, to remove a director without assigning any reason, a vote of shareholders representing at least 66.67 percent of the total voting power of the company is required.
However, Nvidia launched an independent investigation on November 8 into reports that Huang was targeted by a spy in a foreign intelligence operation through alleged personal connections.
This investigation has been started after allegations related to Alice Huang. Alice Huang is an executive at 'Megaspeed' based in Singapore. MegaSpeed, a major customer of Nvidia, has reportedly purchased more than $4.8 billion worth of chips from Nvidia in two years.
Earlier, many American companies have removed their Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) due to such personal relationships.
McDonald's fired its CEO Steve Easterbrook in 2019 because his consensual relationship with an employee violated the company's 'standards of business conduct'
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich resigned in 2018. This was because his past relationship with an employee violated the company's 'non-fraternization' policy.
American policy-makers claim that the woman in question was hired by China's 'Ministry of State Security' to spy on the CEO of Nvidia. Huang sent an email to Nvidia employees in which he apologized to his family and “all of you”.
China on Monday rejected claims that it spied on American chip company Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to media reports from Beijing. China described these claims as “baseless”.
Additionally, Singapore-based AI data center company 'MegaSpeed' also denied allegations that it was illegally shipping Nvidia chips to China. The company said an investigation by U.S. and Malaysian authorities, as well as Nvidia, found no evidence of wrongdoing.
–IANS
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