Nvidia's board has opened an independent investigation into whether founder and CEO Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence operation, after Huang told employees he had been unfaithful to his wife. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he had not discussed the matter with the chief executive, but backed him to stay on.
"I have not spoken to him about it. I just know he's a fine person, but you never know what is going on," Trump told reporters before returning to Washington from Palm Beach, Florida. Asked whether Huang should remain CEO of the world's most valuable company, he said: "I think so. Oh yeah, sure."
Asked whether he now wished he had acted on the intelligence when he was briefed, Trump said: "I think he's an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it. You have to hear it." He said Huang had done "an amazing job for our country" and that he would "certainly" take him on his Asia trip this month. "I haven't heard he's done anything wrong," Trump said.
Huang, 63, wrote to Nvidia staff on Sunday: "I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry." He said he took full responsibility and accepted the criticism that came with it, that leading Nvidia was "the privilege of my life" and that he had fallen short, and asked for privacy for his family. The memo did not name the woman.
The board said a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, would oversee the inquiry. "While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board's inquiry will examine all available information," it said. The board said Huang "fully supports the review and has committed to cooperating", would lead the company through the inquiry, and that it had confidence in him and his leadership team. Company spokesperson John Rizzo said: "Today's news will not slow NVIDIA."
The probe follows reports in late October that U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and former senior executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed, was passing information to Beijing and had developed a close relationship with the Nvidia chief. Later reports said she had been recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to collect information on him. She is not related to Jensen Huang.
Megaspeed has bought more than $4.8 billion of Nvidia chips over the past two years, according to those reports, and has separately been examined by the U.S. Commerce Department over suspicions that it helped Chinese firms obtain advanced AI chips barred by export controls. Until last month, Huang described his dealings with her as "completely normal and not unusual".
The allegations are contested. Megaspeed has said it is a "compliant and legitimate company" and has appointed external counsel for its own internal investigation; China's embassy in Washington has rejected the espionage claims; Alice Huang did not respond to requests for comment. Nvidia has not been accused of wrongdoing, and the board said it had seen nothing to suggest U.S. security interests or company secrets were at risk.
In Washington, the Republican chairmen of three House committees wrote to Huang on Nov. 4 seeking a closed-door briefing on Nov. 18 on Nvidia's safeguards against foreign espionage. Senator Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said Congress would investigate. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to comment. "I just can't comment because of the nature of it," he told reporters. "And I also can't comment on an internal corporate matter that's going on with Nvidia."
Nvidia shares were quoted at $188.70 in Sunday after-hours trade, up about 1%. The chipmaker reported quarterly profit of $59.69 billion in August on the artificial intelligence boom, and its processors remain the focus of U.S. export restrictions meant to keep advanced semiconductors out of China.
Analysts framed the affair as a governance problem before a security one. "This is a black eye moment for Jensen and will spark multiple congressional inquiries at a minimum," Daniel Ives of Yorkville Ives & Co wrote in a note. Ray Wang of Constellation Research said the question was whether "the extortion resulted in Nvidia making policies or the CEO making policies that would compromise national security".
(With inputs from PTI and media reports)