Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has revealed he had an affair with Alice Huang, an executive at an Nvidia customer who is also an alleged Chinese spy. This admission has led Nvidia to launch an independent investigation into reports that its CEO was the target of a foreign intelligence effort.
Footage from last year showed Alice Huang interacting with Jensen Huang in Taipei. The Nvidia board stated that while it has "no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised," its inquiry will examine all available information. Jensen Huang, 63, admitted there was "no excuse" for his actions.
The relationship became apparent after reports from the New York Times and Bloomberg last year raised questions about Megaspeed, a Singapore-based buyer of Nvidia's chips, allegedly flouting US restrictions on AI chip exports to China. Megaspeed denied diverting inventory. A further New York Times report last month stated that American officials believed Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive, was a Chinese intelligence asset.
The affair occurred during a period of close interaction between Jensen Huang and former President Donald Trump, who met at least seven times since the start of his second term. These meetings included discussions on US controls over advanced AI chip exports to China, a sensitive issue for Nvidia, which saw China account for roughly a quarter of its revenue between 2020 and 2022.
Under Trump, Nvidia was allowed to export previously banned chips to China, with the company agreeing to give the US government a percentage of sales revenue. Experts suggested these deals would help Beijing compete "on the AI frontier." The two were first photographed together in mid-2024, and filmed in a Taipei restaurant five months after Trump took office, shortly before Trump agreed to allow Nvidia to sell H200 chips to China.