Nvidia Board Launches Probe After Reports CEO Was Targeted by Chinese Spy

Nvidia on Sunday said it’s opening an investigation into whether Jensen Huang, the company’s chief executive officer and founder, was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort after Huang admitted having an affair with a business executive who was reportedly a Chinese spy.

The announcement of any investigation follows a series of reports that Huang had developed a “close relationship” with Alice Huang, no relation to Jensen Huang, who is a Chinese citizen and an executive at Megaspeed. Megaspeed is a Singapore-based data center company that buys chips from Nvidia to run data centers that sell computing power to Chinese AI labs.

The New York Times reported in late October that US intelligence agencies had Alice Huang under electronic surveillance for allegedly facilitating the sale of advanced Nvidia chips to China in violation of US law. During that surveillance, officials discovered she was also allegedly funneling information to the Chinese government in Beijing.

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The announcement comes as Nvidia has solidified its position as a leader in the AI boom. The cutting-edge computer chips that Nvidia produces are what make AI and AI data centers possible, and that has made Nvidia the world’s most valuable company by market cap — $5 trillion this year.

“Today’s news will not slow Nvidia,” an Nvidia spokesperson said. “Jensen is committed to continuing to lead Nvidia as CEO without interruption.”

A committee of independent directors, working with outside counsel, will oversee the investigation, the board said in a statement. The company added that it “has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information.”

In his own memo to Nvidia employees, Huang said he was “deeply sorry” for the affair. “I was unfaithful to my wife,” he wrote. “My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did.” Huang, 63, added that he will cooperate fully with the board’s investigation.

The company had previously characterized Jensen Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang as “not unusual or unexpected” given that the CEO “talks with thousands of customer executives every year.”

CNET’s Katelyn Chedraoui contributed to this report.

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