Nvidia board opens independent inquiry into Jensen Huang over alleged foreign intelligence targeting

Nvidia's board of directors said on Sunday, November 8, that it has opened an independent investigation into reports that chief executive Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort. On the same day, Huang told employees in a memo that he had an affair with the businesswoman at the centre of the allegations, and apologised to his family and staff. Huang remains chief executive while the inquiry runs.

What the board said

A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, will oversee the investigation, 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,” it said. The board said it had confidence in Huang and his leadership team, and that Huang supports the investigation and has agreed to cooperate. It gave no deadline and said it would provide updates “as appropriate”. The statement did not name the person involved or describe the relationship.

Huang's memo to staff

Huang sent a memo to Nvidia employees on Sunday admitting the affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based AI computing infrastructure company. The New York Times reported on Sunday that Huang had acknowledged an intimate relationship with her to the board.

The background: what US intelligence is said to suspect

The New York Times and the Financial Times reported that US intelligence agencies concluded Alice Huang — also known as Huang Le, a Chinese citizen — had been recruited by China's Ministry of State Security and tasked with pressing Jensen Huang to lobby Washington for looser limits on AI chip sales to China. Megaspeed bought more than $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over the past two years, according to the reports. Nvidia had earlier described Huang's contacts with her as routine customer meetings. China's foreign ministry dismissed the spying claims as groundless speculation. The allegations have not been publicly proven.

Congress wants answers

The Republican chairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Intelligence Committee and the Select Committee on China have asked Huang to attend a closed-door briefing on November 18 to explain how he came into contact with Alice Huang and to describe Nvidia's procedures for guarding against foreign espionage. The New York Times also reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio supervised the preparation of a highly classified memo this spring alerting senior administration officials to Huang's relationship.

What happens next

The investigation has no announced timetable, and the November 18 congressional briefing is the next key date. Nvidia, worth about $4.5 trillion, is the world's second-largest listed company, and its AI chips sit at the centre of the US–China technology race. Bloomberg reported on November 6 that Nvidia now requires Southeast Asian customers seeking official Nvidia Cloud Partner status to register with its Fleet Intelligence system, which tracks where chips end up, in a move to stop smuggling into China.

(Photo: Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang. Image: Fast Company)