Jensen Huang has admitted to Nvidia’s board that he “was intimate” with an executive US official accused of being a spy for the Chinese government, according to a New York Times report. And AI Chip Powerhouse said in a statement that it has opened an investigation into the matter. Earlier, the Times reported that the US government alleged that a woman named Alice Huang spied on Nvidia.
In an apology sent to the company, Huang wrote: “I was faithful to my wife,” adding: “My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”
Nvidia released a statement confirming the investigation on Sunday, writing that it is overseen by “a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel,” and insisting that its board of directors “prioritizes US national and economic security” and “has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets have been compromised.”
According to the board, Huang will continue to lead the company while the investigation is conducted.
The alleged spy, known by the name Alice Huang or Huang Le, was listed as a Singapore-based Megaspeed managing director until at least 2023. The goal of the Nvidia operation, writes the Times, was to learn more about Nvidia’s advanced hardware. Chinese officials are also allegedly tasked with persuading Huang to lobby for some of the company’s most advanced GPUs to be shipped to China as a sort of stretch goal.
It is not clear how much influence the alleged spy wielded or how successful she was. However, Jensen Huang successfully petitioned Trump in 2025 to allow more GPU exports to China, and later made a deal to sell limited quantities of his second most powerful chip there as well.
Yorkville Ives analyst Dan Ives said in an email statement to Gizmodo that there is “significant risk that Jensen could be removed as CEO depending on the board’s investigation and this will add risk to the stock because he is so important to Nvidia’s story and strategy globally.” Ives also predicted that this matter will only increase the scrutiny regarding chip sales in China, which has remained a controversial issue in Washington.