Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s abrupt resignation on Thursday — amid revelations of affairs including with a woman suspected by U.S. intelligence officials of spying for China — has raised questions about the potential impact on the technology giant’s extensive footprint in Israel, where it employs roughly 6,000 people and operates its largest research and development hub outside the United States.

Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and led the company for 33 years, stepped down as president, CEO and board member effective immediately, the company announced. 

He apologized for the relationship that has raised potential national security concerns in a Sunday email to staff, while Beijing has denied the espionage allegations. Media outlets reported this week that Huang also had extramarital affairs with at least two more female employees. 

Nvidia announced that Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor. Kress, who joined Nvidia in 2013, has previously emphasized her close working relationship with the company’s Israeli teams, telling Israeli media outlet Globes in 2023 that her workday “starts with Israel meetings.”

The leadership shakeup comes as Nvidia has been preparing a major expansion of its Israeli operations, which grew significantly following its $6.9 billion acquisition of Israeli chipmaker Mellanox, announced in 2019 and completed in 2020. Huang, who has frequently referred to Israel as Nvidia’s “second home,” was reportedly the driving force behind a planned multibillion-dollar research and development campus in Kiryat Tivon, near Haifa. The roughly 22-acre facility is designed to accommodate up to 10,000 employees, with construction scheduled to begin in 2027 and initial occupancy targeted for 2031.

His departure raises questions about whether Nvidia will maintain its ambitious expansion plans and current footprint in Israel, though there has been no indication that the company intends to scale back its Israeli operations.

Among the names being discussed as potential permanent successors are two Israeli-born, Technion-educated executives: Nvidia Chief Technology Officer and Mellanox co-founder Michael Kagan and Apple’s Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji, according to Haaretz. 

In an interview with Israel Hayom conducted in early September, Kagan expressed confidence in Nvidia’s continued expansion in Israel. Asked whether the company would need the thousands of employees expected to work at its planned Kiryat Tivon campus, Kagan replied: “Of course we’ll need them.” He had also expressed hope that Nvidia would eventually build another campus in Israel. 

Neither has been named as an official candidate by Nvidia, which said it will consider both internal and external replacements.

The company’s Israeli teams have long played a central role in developing the networking and artificial intelligence technologies that allow data center chips to operate together. According to Calcalist, the operations have become so deeply integrated into Nvidia’s business that any changes could disrupt the development of key products.

Engineers in Israel lead the development of Nvidia’s flagship networking hardware, which links tens of thousands of AI processors into unified supercomputing clusters. Those high-speed systems have aided Nvidia’s dominance in artificial intelligence infrastructure and generate billions of dollars in annual revenue.