Check your retirement account today? I don’t recommend it.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned, days after admitting an affair with an alleged Chinese spy and hours after reports of another relationship with a subordinate. Nvidia supplies the vast majority of artificial intelligence chips, and helped finance the industry’s hyperscalers. That made Huang not just the mascot for this boom, but kind of its central banker.

Initial market reaction was nasty, prompting “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal to ask: Is Nvidia too big to fail? In today’s newsletter, we’ll get you up to speed. — Tony Wagner, newsletter editor

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stepped down today amid a weeklong scandal over an extramarital affair with national security implications, and reports of other affairs with colleagues.

“He pretty much had to go,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. “Too much of a distraction for a company, too much danger for the company, and, from my experience in advising boards of directors, my guess is that the boards have been meeting day and night, trying to figure out how to convince Jensen to step down. And they succeeded.”

Chief Financial Officer Collette Kress will take over as interim CEO. She’s been with the company for 13 years, and she’ll be only the second person to lead Nvidia, which has been around since 1993. Jensen Huang has led the company since he founded it.

That’s part of why this is a big story. Nvidia has become a huge player in the booming buildout of AI infrastructure. Huang has not only been the public face of the company; he also had a huge amount of power in the firm.

“This is sort of like when Steve Jobs got pushed out of Apple. What happened to Apple? Well, it wasn't easy for them,” Gordon said. “They're going to need a new CEO. They're going to need somebody really fabulous, and it's not going to be easy to bring them in.”

The company had an unusual structure where Huang had 60 people reporting to him directly, and Nvidia reportedly never made a succession plan. The company’s board didn’t even have a chair until Thursday , when it announced it appointed Harvey C. Jones as its leader.

If Nvidia falters, it could have ripple effects on other AI companies — and your retirement account.

Polish energy group Orlen ended its long-time contract with QatarEnergy this week, which was supposed to last until 2034. Wartime disruptions have made the company unable to deliver shipments of liquefied natural gas.

It’s concrete evidence of how war and geopolitical conflict are restructuring the global energy business.

A Marketplace fan wrote to us a few years back to ask: What do CEOs actually do all day? It might be worth revisiting with today’s big news. One thing execs do is establish the culture, and in 33 years Huang certainly set Nvidia’s. Listen to Kai Ryssdal’s interview with Tae Kim, author of “The Nvidia Way,” and read an excerpt.