Nvidia opens spy probe as Jensen Huang admits to an affair
Nvidia’s board is investigating whether CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by foreign intelligence. Huang acknowledged an affair after reports linked him to a woman suspected of working for Chinese intelligence.
Huang remains CEO. Nvidia’s board said a committee of independent directors would lead the inquiry with help from outside counsel. The board expressed confidence in Huang’s leadership and said it had no reason to believe company secrets or U.S. national security had been compromised.
What Huang told employees
“I was unfaithful to my wife,” Huang wrote in an email Axios published. He apologized to his family and colleagues and pledged to cooperate with the investigation. He did not name the woman in the email.
The Financial Times identified her as Alice Huang, a former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company that buys Nvidia chips. The New York Times reported, citing people familiar with a U.S. intelligence assessment, that China’s Ministry of State Security had recruited her to gather information on the Nvidia CEO.
U.S. officials were concerned that Beijing could learn more about Nvidia’s plans for advanced AI chips. When President Donald Trump was first briefed on the intelligence, officials did not believe Jensen Huang knew of Alice Huang’s suspected work for Beijing, the Times reported. China’s embassy in Washington dismissed the allegations.
Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs separately said its authorities had not investigated Alice Huang as described in a Wall Street Journal report. Singapore police said their investigation into Megaspeed was ongoing.
What Congress wants to know
Three U.S. House committee chairs asked Huang on November 4 to brief them privately about his contacts with Alice Huang and Nvidia’s safeguards against foreign espionage. They proposed November 18 and asked him to confirm the date or suggest another by November 11.
Trump called Huang an “honorable” person on Sunday and praised his work in the United States. He said he had not spoken to Huang about the allegations, Reuters reported.
Nvidia shares slip ahead of earnings
Nvidia traded around $180.30 overnight on Blue Ocean, about 3.4% below Friday’s Nasdaq close of $186.64. Perpetual futures tracking the stock on Hyperliquid traded near the same level, Reuters reported.
Nvidia had already lost 8.8% the previous week, its fifth straight weekly decline. Thursday’s broader selloff took the Nasdaq down 5.5% and spread to Asian chipmakers as investors weighed whether Democratic gains in the U.S. midterms could slow data center construction, Durov’s Code reported.
Nvidia is scheduled to report earnings on November 17, a day before the proposed congressional briefing.