Nvidia’s board investigates reports of an intelligence operation targeting Jensen Huang
Written by AI
Nvidia’s board is launching an independent investigation after media reported that chief executive Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. Huang admitted to staff that he had been unfaithful to his wife but did not mention the spying allegations.
On Sunday, 8 November, Nvidia published a statement from its board and a message to staff from founder and CEO Jensen Huang on its newsroom. The board said it was launching an investigation in light of recent reporting that Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.
A committee of independent board members oversees the investigation, assisted by outside lawyers. The board said it had no reason to believe that US national security or Nvidia’s secrets had been compromised, but the inquiry would still examine all available information. It also expressed confidence in Huang, who has promised to cooperate with the investigation.
Huang’s message does not mention spying
‘I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did,’ Huang wrote. He took full responsibility for his actions and said he remained fully committed to Nvidia.
TechCrunch reported that the message does not name the woman, and the trade publication DatacenterDynamics (DCD) noted that it makes no reference to the spying allegations. Both outlets identified her as Alice Huang, who has held executive roles at Singapore-based Megaspeed. Alice Huang is not related to Jensen Huang.
John Rizzo, head of public policy communications at Nvidia, said in a statement that the day’s news would not slow Nvidia, Axios reported. Rizzo added that Huang is committed to continuing as CEO without interruption.
The suspicions come from intelligence officials
Axios reported that the New York Times wrote on Friday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had warned top Trump administration officials about Huang’s relationship with a woman. US intelligence officials believed she was a Chinese spy recruited to gather information and possibly to push sales of Nvidia’s advanced chips to China despite export controls, the Times reported. TechCrunch wrote that a memo had circulated among policymakers earlier this year stating that China’s Ministry of State Security had recruited Alice Huang.
US intelligence detected the relationship last year while monitoring Megaspeed, DCD reported. The company is under investigation for smuggling Nvidia GPUs to China. Megaspeed has bought more than $2 billion in Nvidia hardware and denies smuggling.
Huang dismissed an earlier Times story about the relationship as baseless speculation and said the contact was related to Megaspeed, DCD reported. At the time, Nvidia said it does not share classified information with its customers, according to TechCrunch.
Huang has lobbied in Washington for looser export controls on China. On Thursday, Republicans in Congress asked Huang to brief them on the matter behind closed doors. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House China committee, said Congress must establish the extent to which US national security has been compromised.