Nvidia investigates CEO Jensen Huang's relationship with alleged Chinese spy

Key points

• Nvidia's board has opened an independent investigation into spying allegations involving CEO Jensen Huang.
• Huang told staff he had an affair with Alice Huang, a businesswoman U.S. intelligence agencies say is a Chinese spy.
• Three House Republican committee chairs asked Huang to brief lawmakers behind closed doors on Nov. 18.

Nvidia has opened an investigation into co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang's relationship with a businesswoman whom U.S. intelligence agencies say is a Chinese spy, according to reports in The New York Times and the Financial Times. The woman, Alice Huang, is affiliated with Megaspeed, a cloud company and Nvidia customer that intelligence agencies believe has been passing information to Beijing.

In an email to Nvidia staff on Sunday, Huang said he had an affair with the woman and that the board of directors had opened an independent investigation into the spying allegations. An Nvidia spokesperson said Huang was committed to continuing as CEO without interruption.

What Huang told staff

Huang wrote that he had been unfaithful to his wife and that his actions had hurt her and their children. "There is no excuse for what I did," he wrote, adding that he was deeply sorry. In the same note, he said he was "proud and grateful" to be an American.

I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did.

— Jensen Huang

Board inquiry and chip dispute

The Nvidia board said it would investigate the allegations that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. It said it had no reason to believe national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, but that its inquiry would examine all available information.

The allegations come as Nvidia sits at the center of a U.S.-China trade dispute over AI chips. Megaspeed has been accused of helping restricted Chinese companies obtain Nvidia AI chips, and Nvidia representatives previously said Megaspeed had already been investigated for evading export controls. Three House Republican committee chairs sent Huang a letter on Wednesday asking him to sit for a closed-door briefing with lawmakers on Nov. 18. Nvidia reports third-quarter earnings on Nov. 17.