Nvidia on Sunday mentioned it’s opening an investigation into whether or not Jensen Huang, the corporate’s chief govt officer and founder, was focused by a international intelligence effort after Huang admitted having an affair with a enterprise govt who was reportedly a Chinese language spy.
The announcement of any investigation follows a sequence of stories that Huang had developed a “shut relationship” with Alice Huang, no relation to Jensen Huang, who’s a Chinese language citizen and an govt at Megaspeed. Megaspeed is a Singapore-based information middle firm that buys chips from Nvidia to run information facilities that promote computing energy to Chinese language AI labs.
The New York Instances reported in late October that US intelligence companies had Alice Huang beneath digital surveillance for allegedly facilitating the sale of superior Nvidia chips to China in violation of US regulation. Throughout that surveillance, officers found she was additionally allegedly funneling info to the Chinese language authorities in Beijing.
The announcement comes as Nvidia has solidified its place as a frontrunner within the AI increase. The cutting-edge pc chips that Nvidia produces are what make AI and AI information facilities attainable, and that has made Nvidia one of many world’s most useful firms by market cap.
“Right now’s information is not going to gradual Nvidia,” an Nvidia spokesperson mentioned. “Jensen is dedicated to persevering with to guide Nvidia as CEO with out interruption.”
A committee of impartial administrators, working with exterior counsel, will oversee the investigation, the board mentioned in a assertion. The corporate added that it “has no purpose to imagine that both nationwide safety or Nvidia secrets and techniques had been compromised, the Board’s inquiry will look at all out there info.”
The US has tried to regulate China’s entry to those superior chips for years. The Biden administration banned Chinese language gross sales of a sequence of superior Nvidia chips in 2022, however President Donald Trump relaxed these guidelines in 2025. However stories present that there are nonetheless unlawful operations underway to smuggle banned chips from the US to China.
In his personal memo to Nvidia workers, Huang mentioned he was “deeply sorry” for the affair. “I used to be untrue to my spouse,” he wrote. “My actions damage her and our kids. There isn’t any excuse for what I did.” Huang, 63, added that he’ll cooperate totally with the board’s investigation.
The corporate had beforehand characterised Jensen Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang as “common or surprising” on condition that the CEO “talks with hundreds of buyer executives yearly.”
CNET’s Katelyn Chedraoui contributed to this report.
