Tech billionaires caught up in extramarital affair scandals

Jensen Huang

Jensen Huang, CEO and co-founder of Nvidia. Photo courtesy of Nvidia

On Nov. 8, Huang, 63, acknowledged having an extramarital affair in a message to Nvidia employees, apologizing to his wife, Lori Huang, their two children and his colleagues. "I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry," he wrote in the letter published by Nvidia.

The admission followed an investigation by The New York Times into Huang's alleged relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based technology company Megaspeed.

The two were photographed together at a bar in Taipei in 2024. Alice Huang had connections with senior executives in the artificial intelligence and computer hardware industries and attended industry conferences and private business gatherings. Huang did not identify the person involved in his affair in his message to employees.

Huang and his wife, Lori, 65, met while studying at Oregon State University and have been married since the mid-1980s. They have two children, Madison and Spencer, both of whom work at Nvidia.

Lori could receive as much as half of Huang's estimated $155.4 billion fortune, as of Nov. 10, in a potential divorce, depending on their marital agreements and applicable property laws, according to Forbes.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk gestures as he leaves after attending a welcome ceremony for U.S. President Donald Trump with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 14, 2026. Photo by Reuters

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been married three times to two women and has had several high-profile relationships, including with actress Amber Heard, the former wife of Hollywood actor Johnny Depp, and musician Grimes.

Musk and Heard went public with their relationship in April 2017 before separating that August. They briefly reunited but ended their relationship for good in February 2018, according to People magazine.

In 2019, Depp accused Heard of having an affair with Musk beginning in 2015, while she was still married to him. Musk denied the allegation. His representative told E! News magazine that Musk and Heard began seeing each other infrequently in May 2016 and that their relationship did not become romantic until later.

In July 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had a brief affair with Nicole Shanahan, then the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, in late 2021. Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said the alleged relationship occurred while Brin and Shanahan were separated but still married. Both Musk and Shanahan denied the allegation.

Bill Gates

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates faced scrutiny in May 2021 after reports emerged that he had an extramarital relationship with a female Microsoft employee approximately two decades earlier.

Microsoft's board launched an investigation in 2019 after a female engineer reported having had an intimate relationship with Gates over several years. A spokesperson for Gates subsequently acknowledged that the affair had taken place around 20 years earlier and had ended amicably.

Gates stepped down from Microsoft's board in March 2020, although his spokesperson maintained that the decision was unrelated to the investigation.

In May 2021, Gates and his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, announced their divorce after 27 years of marriage. They have three children together. The couple also jointly established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, one of the world's largest private charitable foundations, now known as the Gates Foundation.

Further details emerged in February 2026, when Gates acknowledged having affairs with two Russian women during a meeting with foundation employees. The women were described as a bridge player and a nuclear physicist. Gates made the disclosure while addressing his past association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, U.S. Photo by AFP

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' relationship with television personality Lauren Sanchez became public in January 2019, shortly after he and his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, announced their separation.

The National Enquirer published details of the relationship, including intimate messages reportedly exchanged between Bezos and Sánchez beginning in April 2018. It also reported that the two had traveled together on private aircraft and been photographed during private outings.

At the time, Bezos was still married to Scott, while Sanchez remained legally married to Hollywood talent agent Patrick Whitesell.

Bezos and Scott finalized their divorce in 2019 after 25 years of marriage. Under their settlement, Scott received a 4% stake in Amazon, worth approximately $36 billion when the agreement was announced.

Sanchez also finalized her divorce from Whitesell that year. She and Bezos continued their relationship and married in Venice, Italy, in June 2025.

Sergey Brin

In 2013, reports emerged about Google co-founder Sergey Brin's involvement with Amanda Rosenberg, a marketing manager working on the company's Google Glass smart glasses project.

At the time, Brin was married to Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of genetic testing company 23andMe. The couple had married in 2007 and had two children.

Wojcicki became concerned after discovering messages exchanged between Brin and Rosenberg, according to a report from Vanity Fair in April 2014.

Brin moved out of the couple's shared home in April 2013, and news of their separation became public that August. Their divorce was finalized in June 2015.

The controversy also attracted attention within Google because Rosenberg had previously been romantically involved with Hugo Barra, a senior executive on Google's Android team.

Eric Schmidt

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has been married to Wendy Schmidt since 1980, has been romantically linked to several women, including fashion designer Shoshanna Gruss, former model Ulla Parker and former CNBC journalist Kate Bohner, according to Forbes.

In 2020, he began dating entrepreneur Michelle Ritter, then a law student at Columbia University. The two subsequently became involved in Steel Perlot, a startup incubator and investment company established in 2021 with Schmidt's financial backing.

Ritter lived in Schmidt's mansion in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, while their company invested in startups across artificial intelligence, finance and technology. Their relationship later deteriorated, leading to disputes over the company's financing, management and future.

Schmidt's family investment office had committed approximately $140 million to Steel Perlot over three years, according to The Information. Financial records reviewed by the publication showed that the company accumulated $61 million in operating losses between its establishment in 2021 and February 2024, while generating less than $200,000 in revenue. Ritter, who reportedly earned an annual salary of $1 million, blamed Schmidt for the company's difficulties, while former employees raised concerns about her management.