Nvidia disclosed on Sunday that it is commissioning an independent investigation after media reports suggested its founder and chief executive was the focus of a foreign intelligence operation. The board emphasized that it has not found evidence of any breach to U.S. national security or to Nvidia’s proprietary data, and said the review will assess all relevant material.
According to a New York Times story, former President Donald Trump received a briefing last year about intelligence indicating that Huang maintained a close relationship with a Chinese businesswoman who allegedly transmitted information to Beijing. In response, Republican members of the House foreign affairs and intelligence committees have asked Huang to appear for a closed-door session to discuss Nvidia’s safeguards against espionage and his connection to Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed.
Alice Huang, who shares a surname but is unrelated to the Nvidia chief, has been under U.S. surveillance after authorities suspected her of moving Nvidia chips to China. Unnamed sources cited by the Times say investigators concluded she acted as an asset for Chinese state intelligence, passing commercial details to Beijing and potentially facilitating attempts to evade American export restrictions on advanced processors.
An Axios report cited a draft email that Huang circulated to staff, in which he admitted to a romantic involvement with the suspected spy and accepted full responsibility for his conduct. The message read, “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did,” reflecting a personal apology that has added a new layer to the unfolding controversy.
The Times also revealed that a memo drafted by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio circulated among senior officials in the Trump administration, citing intelligence that the businesswoman was a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security. Despite those warnings, Huang was invited to join the president’s delegation to China in May and later attended a White House state dinner with President Xi Jinping, where he was seated alongside Trump and the Chinese leader.
Nvidia’s GPUs remain a cornerstone of the global AI surge, positioning Huang as a key figure in the United States’ effort to retain technological leadership. The administration has tightened export controls, barring the company’s most advanced chips from Chinese customers, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that Beijing could face sanctions for alleged theft of U.S. data and intellectual property. The controversy coincided with a sharp sell-off in AI-related equities, erasing roughly $1 trillion from the Nasdaq in a single week and $2 trillion over the month, with Nvidia’s shares dropping 3.1% and pulling the S&P 500 lower.