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Nvidia's board of directors said on Sunday, November 8, that it has launched an independent investigation into reports that its founder and chief executive, Jensen Huang, was the target of a foreign intelligence effort. A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent legal counsel, will run the review. The board said it has "no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised."
On the same day, Huang told Nvidia employees in an email that he had an affair with the woman at the centre of those reports. "I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did," he wrote, adding that he takes full responsibility and will cooperate fully with the investigation. A Nvidia spokesperson said Huang remains committed to leading the company without interruption.
The woman is Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese citizen and former managing director of Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based data-centre company that bought more than $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over the past two years. She is not related to Jensen Huang. The New York Times reported on October 29 that United States intelligence officials assessed that Alice Huang had been recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to forge a romantic relationship with Jensen Huang and gather information about Nvidia, and that officials suspected she helped move advanced Nvidia chips into China. The Wall Street Journal reported a similar American assessment. The claims have not been publicly proven, and no charges have been brought against anyone.
The warning reached the top of the Trump administration months before the story became public. This spring, Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw the drafting of a highly classified memo warning senior Trump administration officials about Jensen Huang's close relationship with Alice Huang, according to the Times, citing people briefed on the matter. The memo, based on classified intelligence gathered through electronic surveillance of Alice Huang, was circulated to officials holding high-level security clearances ahead of President Donald Trump's trip to China in May. The Times also reported that Trump had been briefed about intelligence surveillance involving Alice Huang roughly a year earlier. The White House, the State Department and the CIA declined to comment to the Times.
Huang was initially left off the list of business and technology executives invited to accompany Trump on the May visit to China. Trump personally asked him to join the trip, inviting him to meet Air Force One during a stop in Alaska, and later wrote on Truth Social praising "the Great Jensen Huang" among the tech leaders travelling with him to China to meet President Xi Jinping.
Asked by reporters on Sunday about the allegations, Trump defended the Nvidia chief. "I think he's an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it and you have to hear it... He's done an amazing job for our country," Trump said, adding that he had not heard Huang had done anything wrong and that he would "certainly take" Huang with him on his upcoming Asia trip.
The fallout continued on Monday. The Republican chairs of three House committees have invited Huang to a closed-door briefing on November 18 about Nvidia's protections against foreign espionage, and Senator Chris Coons has pledged a Senate inquiry. Megaspeed is separately part of a United States Commerce Department investigation into whether advanced AI chips were diverted to China. Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs said on October 31 that its authorities had conducted no separate investigation into Alice Huang's alleged intelligence ties, while Singapore police confirmed an ongoing investigation into Megaspeed. China has rejected the reporting: Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun called the accusations smears against China. Nvidia had previously described Huang's contacts with Alice Huang as routine meetings with a customer, saying customers do not receive classified business information.