NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang admits to affair... Espionage probes inside and outside the company

[Financial News] Jensen Huang, CEO of U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker NVIDIA, recently admitted to having an affair with a person suspected of being a Chinese spy. NVIDIA and the U.S. Congress are each expected to investigate allegations that Huang was involved in espionage, while Huang is reportedly set to remain CEO for now.
According to the British newspaper the Financial Times (FT), on the 8th (local time), Huang apologized in an internal memo sent to employees that day, saying, “I was unfaithful to my wife,” and “My actions hurt my wife and children. There is no excuse.” He said, “I deeply regret it,” and stated that he would work to regain the trust of his family, employees and shareholders.
Earlier, The New York Times (NYT), citing sources on the 29th of last month, reported that Huang had been in contact with a Chinese national named Alice Huang (Chinese name: Huang Le). According to the NYT, U.S. intelligence officials consider Alice Huang a Chinese spy and believe she leaked information about Huang and NVIDIA to China.
Alice Huang was a senior executive at Megaspeed International, a data center company headquartered in Singapore. According to some Chinese sources, she previously worked as a broadcast journalist in China. Alice Huang later worked at major Chinese banks and then at Heosi Capital, an investment firm that funds semiconductor and AI companies. She introduced herself to people outside the company as Megaspeed’s CEO, but in reality held a director position in the company’s early days. It has since been confirmed that Alice Huang also stepped down from the board. Since 2024, U.S. authorities have been investigating the possibility that Megaspeed smuggled NVIDIA chips into China, despite a ban on exporting them there.



Shortly after the reports, Huang claimed that he had had a normal business relationship with Alice Huang. On the 8th, NVIDIA’s board said it would establish a special committee of independent directors to determine whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence agency and would begin an investigation with outside legal experts.
NVIDIA’s board said there was “no reason to believe that national security or company secrets have been compromised,” but that it would review all relevant information. Huang says he will cooperate fully with the investigation and will remain CEO until its findings are released. NVIDIA has no publicly announced CEO succession plan, and no clear successor to Huang has emerged.
The investigation into Huang is also proceeding separately outside the company. On the 8th, Democratic Senator Chris Coons (Delaware) wrote on social media platform X: “The more I learn about the absurd ties between the Trump administration, Chinese spies and AI billionaires, the more convinced I am that nothing this administration does is free of corruption.” He added, “Congress will uncover the truth through an investigation.” On the 5th, Huang also received a letter from Republican Representatives Brian Mast, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party; and Rick Crawford, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, requesting that he appear at a closed joint briefing of the three committees to explain the allegations.
Meanwhile, in a report on the 7th, the NYT raised allegations that the U.S. Commerce Department had allowed NVIDIA’s previous-generation AI graphics processing unit (GPU), the H200, to be sold to a Chinese company linked to a private equity firm and subject to U.S. sanctions. The paper said it visited the Beijing headquarters of NewMatrix, a Chinese company approved by the Commerce Department, and found only an empty office with no employees and no lighting installed. Citing its analysis of corporate records, the NYT said NewMatrix’s actual owners were linked to a prominent private equity firm on the U.S. government’s export-control list and its founder, Li Bin, and pointed to the possibility of sanctions evasion.
 



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