Nvidia Opens Investigation into Jensen Huang's Relationship with Chinese Spy

Nvidia has opened a board inquiry into chief executive Jensen Huang after he acknowledged an intimate relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese business executive whom U.S. intelligence agencies identified as gathering information for Beijing. The relationship drew concern because Jensen Huang leads a company central to the artificial-intelligence industry and has significant political influence. He apologized to his wife and children for being unfaithful, while Nvidia’s board said it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised. The inquiry will review the available information, and Huang has agreed to cooperate.

Huang will remain CEO during the investigation, despite his unusually hands-on role overseeing the company and roughly 60 direct reports. Alice Huang, who is not related to him, was formerly a television reporter in China and later became a senior executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company and major Nvidia customer. The company bought more than $4.8 billion in Nvidia chips over two years. Nvidia continued supplying Megaspeed after the U.S. Commerce Department began investigating whether it helped smuggle restricted AI chips to China. The revelations raise questions about potential security and business risks, though Nvidia says it has no evidence of a breach and insists the inquiry will not disrupt its operations.