Nvidia chief Jensen Huang has admitted to having an extramarital affair as his company announced it will investigate reports he was the “target of a foreign intelligence effort.”
The separate statements come amid growing concern over Huang’s close relationship with an executive from Singapore-based tech company Megaspeed, Alice Huang. Several US outlets have reported that American officials suspect Alice Huang, no relation, has fed intelligence to China and helped smuggle advanced artificial intelligence chips into the country.
The controversy could undermine faith in the world’s second-largest company and a poster child for the AI boom, at a time when the US and China are racing to surpass the other in technological supremacy.
In a note to Nvidia staff, Huang said that he was “unfaithful” and hurt his wife and children. He did not name the other person in the affair.
“I take full responsibility for what I did and the hurt I caused, and I accept the criticism that comes with it,” Huang, 63, said, adding that he supports Nvidia’s investigation. “I am committed to protecting NVIDIA and supporting America’s national security.”
Meanwhile, the company said in a Sunday press release that a committee of independent directors and outside counsel will oversee its investigation.
“The Board prioritizes US national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders,” the statement said. But, the board “has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised.”
In a note, Dan Ives, partner and senior managing director at merchant bank Yorkville & Ives Co., called the news “a black eye moment for Jensen” that will increase scrutiny of chip sales to China, which Huang has previously lobbied for.
The investigation will also cast a shadow over Nvidia’s share price, Ives added, as investors question whether Huang will remain at the helm of the company he helped found.
“Today’s news will not slow NVIDIA. Jensen is committed to continuing to lead NVIDIA as CEO without interruption,” a spokesperson for Nvidia told CNN.
Jacob Ward, a tech journalist and CNN contributor said corporate boards historically tend to oust chief executives caught having extramarital affairs within days.
For Nvidia, which holds an outsized role in AI development, global growth and the US stock market, any existential questions about its future will have even greater economic and geopolitical implications. Another unusual factor is that the company has no clear successor for Huang, he added.
“It is a core of the American economy, if not the world economy right now. And this guy who is famously a very, very central commander of all of this stuff, suddenly being caught in this way and especially being caught perhaps being dishonest about it, it’s an incredibly big deal,” Ward said.
The China connection
Huang’s connections to Alice Huang and Megaspeed, which buys chips from Nvidia, have come under intense scrutiny as a potential channel for US semiconductors to reach Chinese buyers, despite export controls on advanced technologies.
The Financial Times previously reported that US intelligence believed that the two were in a romantic relationship.
Nvidia said in a past statement that Jensen Huang’s meetings were “not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year.”
It added that any concerns about illegal chip diversion were “debunked last year.”
Huang joked in a previous interview that he wooed his wife Lori Huang, whom he met in college when he was 17 and she was 19, by offering to help with her homework and vowing to become a CEO by age 30. The couple married in 1985 and have two children.
In 1993 he co-founded Nvidia, which has seen its market capitalization swell to more than $4 trillion as the rise of AI has turbocharged demand for the computer chips it designs.
He has since become the face of the company and a prominent figure in the booming business of AI. Huang joined President Donald Trump with a host of other high-profile CEOs in Beijing earlier this year to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
“Nvidia and Jensen are deeply intertwined. Many people will say Nvidia without Jensen won’t be the same,” George Chen, partner and chair of digital practice at The Asia Group, wrote in a Monday note. “I don’t think it will serve the best interests of Nvidia shareholders and industry partners either if Jensen suddenly quits tomorrow.”
The US government cleared 10 Chinese firms to buy Nvidia’s second-most powerful AI chips, Reuters reported earlier this year, though its unclear how many chips have actually been sold following the approval.
On Sunday, Trump told reporters that he has not spoken to Huang since Nvidia announced the investigation, but said that he was a “fine person” and praised his contribution to the country.
When asked if he wished he had taken action when briefed on the intelligence about alleged spying last year, Trump said, “No I don’t think so. I think he’s an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it.”
On Thursday, Republican chairmen of three influential House panels — the committees on Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Communist Party and Intelligence — said in a news release that they sent a letter to Huang requesting his appearance before their committees to answer questions about his relationship with Megaspeed and the company’s security protocols against foreign espionage.
“Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the PRC’s access to sensitive US technology and information,” the chairmen wrote. “The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Monday that the allegation that Alice Huang was gathering information for Beijing was “purely groundless speculation and an attempt to smear and malign China.”
State-run tabloid The Global Times accused US media outlets of making up stories that could derail a detente between the two nations.
On Chinese social media, Huang’s admission of infidelity became one of the top trending topics with more than 40 million views on the X-like platform Weibo. However, the allegation that Alice Huang was working as a Chinese spy was largely absent from tightly-controlled online discussions.
This story has been updated with additional content.
CNN’s Logan Schiciano and Molly English contributed to this report.
