Nvidia announced that it is examining whether Chinese intelligence services attempted to exploit its chief executive through a personal relationship. The disclosure follows an internal memo, obtained by the Financial Times, in which Jensen Huang admitted to an affair. U.S. intelligence analysts believe the liaison may have been part of a recruitment effort by Beijing’s Ministry of State Security.
The memo cited a romantic involvement with Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based client of Nvidia. According to people familiar with the classified document, U.S. officials concluded that the Megaspeed employee had been recruited by the Ministry of State Security. The same memorandum was prepared shortly before President Donald Trump’s summit in Beijing, underscoring the timing of the alleged espionage.
Nvidia’s Frankfurt-listed shares slipped more than six percent in early trading after the revelation. The company had previously dismissed any impropriety, describing its interactions with the Megaspeed representative as routine customer contact. Analysts noted that the scandal arrives as the broader AI sector confronts heightened political scrutiny in the United States and growing doubts about long-term investment returns.
Jensen Huang’s personal rapport with former President Trump has drawn criticism from U.S. national-security officials who argue the CEO is overly willing to supply advanced chips to China. Trump, when asked about the affair, said he had not discussed the matter with Huang but described him as a ‘fine person.’ The relationship began after a spontaneous birthday call from the president, later leading to joint state visits to China and the United Kingdom.
Huang has repeatedly urged Trump to adopt a more permissive stance on exporting Nvidia’s AI processors after the 2025 export controls effectively barred the firm from the Chinese market. A subsequent arrangement allowed limited shipments of older-generation H200 chips, with the U.S. government taking a share of the revenue. The deal produced only marginal sales growth for Nvidia, while Beijing pushed back against the technology, further inflaming concerns among China-focused hawks in Washington.
In response, Nvidia formed an independent committee of directors, supported by external counsel, to supervise the probe. The board’s action reflects the company’s reliance on Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has overseen its rise from a graphics-card maker to a multitrillion-dollar AI powerhouse. The firm attributes its rapid execution to a flat organizational model that empowers a small core leadership team.