Nvidia Board Opens Investigation Into Reports Jensen Huang Was Target of Foreign Intelligence Effort

Nvidia’s board of directors said Sunday it is opening an independent investigation into reports that founder and chief executive Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, and Huang told employees in a message the same day that he had an affair with the woman at the center of those reports.

A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, will run the inquiry, the board said in a statement. “While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information,” the board said. It added that Huang supports the review, has committed to cooperating with it, and retains the board’s confidence.

Huang will keep running the company while the inquiry proceeds. “Today’s news will not slow NVIDIA. Jensen is committed to continuing to lead NVIDIA as CEO without interruption,” Nvidia spokesman John Rizzo said, according to Axios.

In an email to Nvidia staff on Sunday, Huang wrote: “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” CNBC reported. In a draft of the message obtained by Axios, Huang said he took “full responsibility” and was “fully committed to NVIDIA.”

The woman at the center of the reports

The woman is Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese citizen and an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that buys Nvidia chips. The two are not related. The New York Times and the Financial Times have reported that U.S. intelligence agencies concluded she had been recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security. The Times reported Friday that Trump administration policymakers received an intelligence memo about her last spring, according to CNBC, and Bloomberg summarized the Times report as saying the agency recruited her to collect information on him. NBC News said it had not independently confirmed either outlet’s reporting. Alice Huang has not been charged.

Megaspeed has been the subject of a U.S. investigation into whether it helped China obtain restricted Nvidia AI chips. The United States bars sales of Nvidia’s most powerful chips to Chinese firms. Megaspeed bought more than $4.8 billion in chips since June 2024, the Times reported. Nvidia has said it inspected Megaspeed’s graphics processing unit deployments to ensure processors were not being diverted to China, found nothing, and still lists Megaspeed as a cloud partner. Nvidia has also said its regional cloud customers receive “ordinary business information” and nothing relevant to national security.

Congress seeks answers before earnings

Three Republican committee chairs, Reps. John Moolenaar, Brian Mast and Rick Crawford, have asked Huang to attend a closed-door joint briefing on Nov. 18 and to accept or offer another date by Nov. 11, the House China committee said. The briefing would come the day after Nvidia reports third-quarter earnings on Nov. 17.

Democrats have separately called for investigations or testimony, CNBC reported. Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware wrote on X on Saturday that “Congress will investigate and get answers,” and Rep. Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island called for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify along with Huang.

President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that he would “certainly take” Huang with him on an upcoming trip to China, according to the Times. “I mean, we’d have to find – I haven’t heard he’s done anything wrong,” Trump said. “He dealt with somebody, but you know, so does everybody else,” he added.

Reporting based on coverage by CNBC, the Daily Caller, NBC News and the New York Times.