Huang, 63, will remain CEO during the investigation.
PrevNextNvidia’s board said it has “no reason to believe” that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised. (Scripps News)
Nvidia is opening an investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was the “target of a foreign intelligence effort,” the company’s board of directors said Sunday.
The announcement came after Huang acknowledged to the board that he had been intimate with a business executive whom U.S. intelligence determined was gathering information for Beijing
In a letter to Nvidia employees obtained by The Associated Press, Huang said he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologized to his family and colleagues. He said he took “full responsibility” for his actions.
“Leading Nvidia is the privilege of my life,” Huang wrote. “My responsibility is to serve you and be worthy of your trust. I have fallen short of that responsibility.”
Nvidia’s board said it has “no reason to believe” that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, but that its inquiry would examine all available information. Huang “fully supports the review and has committed to cooperating with it,” the board said.
“Today’s news will not slow Nvidia,” company spokesperson John Rizzo said in a statement. “Jensen is committed to continuing to lead Nvidia as CEO without interruption.”
Investors weren’t as confident. Nvidia shares fell Monday, even as broader stock futures rallied.
The drop comes after a punishing week for AI stocks. Investors sold off chip and data center names after the midterm elections, worried that Democratic wins in statehouses could slow data center construction. Markets lost roughly $3 trillion in value on Thursday alone.
Part of Wall Street’s concern is what investors call “key-man risk.” Huang has no clear successor and personally oversees dozens of Nvidia’s top executives. He also owns only about 3.5% of the company’s shares and holds no supervoting stock, giving the board significant power over his future.
The stakes reach well beyond Silicon Valley. Nvidia is among the largest holdings in many 401(k)s and index funds, and about 44% of U.S. pension fund holdings, roughly $610 billion, are now tied to tech Nvidia is also a major investor in, and lender to, many leading AI companies, including Anthropic, which is preparing for a highly anticipated public offering
Nvidia has become a central player in the global race to develop artificial intelligence, with its chips powering many of the data centers and computing systems used to train and run AI models. Its advanced processors have also been a focus of U.S. export restrictions aimed at limiting China’s access to cutting-edge semiconductor technology.
The Times reported last month that U.S. intelligence agencies had discovered that Huang had developed a close relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and chip buyer, and determined that she was feeding information directly to Beijing. The two are not related, according to the Times.
Alice Huang was previously a television reporter in China before becoming a top executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, which has become one of Nvidia’s biggest customers in Southeast Asia. Megaspeed bought more than $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over the past two years, according to the Times.
U.S. officials suspect Megaspeed has been helping smuggle restricted advanced Nvidia chips into China, according to the Times. The company has faced scrutiny over the smuggling allegations since late 2025. Nvidia has said Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang were consistent with his meetings with other customers and that customers like Megaspeed do not receive classified business information.
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The Nvidia CEO’s letter to employees did not name Alice Huang or address her apparent ties to Beijing. He did, however, refer to the national security concerns raised in news reports and said he supported the board’s investigation and would cooperate fully.
“I love our country and our company,” Jensen Huang said. “I am committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America’s national security.”
President Donald Trump said Sunday he hasn’t spoken to Huang about the latest development and praised him. “I hope everything’s fine then. He’s done such an incredible job,” Trump said, speaking to reporters before returning to the White House.
Asked whether he wished he had acted on intelligence when he was briefed about spying, Trump again praised Huang: “I think he’s an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it. He’s done an amazing job for our country.”
As to whether he’d take the CEO with him on his trip to Asia next week, Trump said he was open to it.
“I don’t know, but I’d certainly take him,” he said of Huang, who serves on the president’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday as he was departing the U.S. for a G7 meeting in Paris that he could not address the situation with Huang.
“I just can’t comment because of the nature of it,” he told reporters. “And I also can’t comment on an internal corporate matter that’s going on with Nvidia.”
The New York Times reported Monday that Rubio oversaw the drafting of a highly classified memo this spring warning top administration officials about Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang. The memo, based on electronic surveillance of Alice Huang, was circulated ahead of Trump’s May trip to China, according to the Times. Trump had been briefed on the intelligence roughly a year ago and chose not to act. Asked Sunday whether he regretted that decision, the president said, “No, I don’t think so.”
On Capitol Hill, Republican leaders of three House committees are demanding answers. In a Nov. 4 letter, sent days before Huang’s admission, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, and Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, asked Huang to appear at a joint, closed-door briefing on Nov. 18.
The lawmakers want answers on Nvidia’s security protocols against foreign espionage and Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang, whom they called a publicly reported Chinese “intelligence asset.” “It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which U.S. national security has been placed at risk,” they wrote. Huang has until Nov. 11 to accept or propose another date.
Critics say the episode raises broader questions about Huang’s influence on U.S. policy toward China. Huang has opposed tighter limits on chip exports and has pushed the administration to allow sales of Nvidia’s advanced chips to Chinese companies.
“We don’t yet know whether Huang was truly influenced by this alleged Chinese spy, or whether he disclosed any information to her,” said Andrew Yoon, head of research at CivAI, an AI safety nonprofit. “At the very least, this incident shows a shocking lack of judgement from one of the most important AI leaders.”
Huang also has prominent defenders. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called the episode a “black eye” for Nvidia but said Huang should remain CEO. Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire wrote on social media that Huang is “irreplaceable for America’s AI leadership.”
Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, has regularly surpassed Wall Street’s earnings expectations in the past three years since its high-end chips emerged as AI’s best building blocks. The Santa Clara, California-based company reported quarterly profits of $59.69 billion in August.
The next test comes this week, when Huang must respond to Congress. Meanwhile, the board’s investigation has no set timeline, leaving investors, and the AI industry that depends on Nvidia’s chips, waiting to see whether the company’s most important leader keeps his job.
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