Former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who recently stepped down amid mounting scrutiny over his extramarital affairs with a suspected Chinese spy and two of his company's employees, allegedly displayed frequent outbursts of anger in his office, including dressing down employees and even throwing a water bottle at a senior executive, according to a report by the New York Post.
The 63-year-old AI pioneer had cultivated a laid-back public persona, sporting black leather jackets and doing TV interviews about his humble beginnings of washing dishes at a diner. However, as he pushed to expand Nvidia's business, employees feared they would be reprimanded viciously at marathon meetings in front of their colleagues, the report cited company insiders as saying.
Last February, Jensen Huang targeted senior Nvidia executive Jay Puri, then-executive vice president of worldwide field operations, in a closed-door meeting with more than 30 company executives. Huang launched a scathing attack, telling him at one point to "die".
"I hope you get the flu and I hope it gets worse," Huang told Puri in front of stunned executives. "I hope you die and put us all out of our misery."
{{/usCountry}}"I hope you get the flu and I hope it gets worse," Huang told Puri in front of stunned executives. "I hope you die and put us all out of our misery."
{{/usCountry}}Puri, who oversaw Nvidia's sales and business development operations at the time, endured the attack in silence as his colleagues watched, according to the NYP report. He was later transitioned to a role as senior adviser to Nvidia.
Huang's frequent temper tantrums
This was one of many of Huang's outbursts in Nvidia, which were so well-known that some employees expressed surprise that they didn’t leak prior to his public downfall, according to the report.
"It’s very typical for Jensen to yell at people, but when he said that specific thing to Jay, it was extremely tense and quiet. Everybody was a little bit shocked," one of the sources told NYP.
In another instance, Huang lashed out at a senior sales leader at a three-hour meeting in 2025, with 40 staffers present. "You don’t know d**k about my business," Huang reportedly told the employee.
In another infamous incident, Huang allegedly threw a water bottle at a top executive during a meeting in Nvidia's California headquarters. He also reportedly lost his temper with a senior leader, who was attending a meeting with him for the first time, saying, "Are you smirking at me? I see nothing but dead faces … Get out!"
Huang steps down as Nvidia CEO
Jensen Huang is now under mounting scrutiny following his sudden resignation as Nvidia CEO amid reports of extramarital affairs, after he admitted to being "unfaithful" to his wife. Nvidia chief financial officer Colette Kress has taken over as interim CEO while the company’s board searches for a permanent successor.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Huang had displayed another temper tantrum at Kress when he interrupted her in the middle of a presentation, calling her a "deer in the headlights". Kress was a “reporting CFO,” not someone who could help him define a strategy or make decisions, Huang said during the meeting.
Huang's biographer Stephen Witt, who wrote The Thinking Machine, said the Nvidia co-founder went to great lengths to portray himself as a family man, but was actually "quite arrogant" and was prone to outbursts even at the slightest contradiction.
Jensen Huang has been married to his wife, Lori Huang, for more than 40 years, and the couple met as students at Oregon State University. They have two children, both are in their 30s: daughter Madison and son Spencer. They work for Nvidia.