Jensen Huang has stepped down as CEO of Nvidia, the company central to the AI boom, after more than 30 years at its helm. The resignation follows revelations of an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, an executive at datacenter company Megaspeed, whom US officials believe to be a Chinese spy.
Nvidia, which Huang stewarded from a $1bn firm in 1999 to a company valued at over $4tn in 2026, reportedly saw more than $600bn wiped from its valuation in days after the affair became public. China has denied accusations that Alice Huang was an intelligence asset, calling them a “smear.”
US officials reportedly began monitoring Alice Huang after suspecting Megaspeed was diverting powerful Nvidia AI chips to Chinese firms, potentially violating export restrictions. The Biden and Trump administrations had prohibited the export of some advanced AI chips to China due to national security concerns.
In November 2023, Megaspeed became an Nvidia cloud partner, granting it preferential access to advanced AI chips. Between 2024 and 2025, Megaspeed reportedly received several hundred shipments of Nvidia AI chips, which it then rented out to major companies including Chinese firms Tencent and Ali Baba.
The US Department of Commerce reportedly began investigating Megaspeed in September 2024 over concerns about chip diversion. In October 2025, The New York Times reported that intelligence officials briefed then-President Trump on the relationship between Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, alleging she was a Chinese spy. Trump reportedly chose not to act at the time.
On 8 November 2026, Jensen Huang admitted to having an extramarital affair in a letter to employees. The Nvidia board stated it was investigating the relationship but had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were divulged.