Nvidia investigating reports that CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by Chinese intelligence

SAN FRANCISCO — Nvidia is opening an investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was the "target of a foreign intelligence effort," the company's board of directors said Sunday.

The announcement came after Huang acknowledged to the board that he had been intimate with a business executive whom U.S. intelligence determined was gathering information for Beijing, The New York Times reported.

Huang apologized in a message to the company, according to the Times. "I was unfaithful to my wife," he said. "My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry."

Nvidia's board said in a statement it has "no reason to believe" that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, but that its inquiry would examine all available information. Huang "fully supports the review and has committed to cooperating with it," the board said.

Huang, 63, will remain CEO during the investigation.

Nvidia has become a central player in the global race to develop artificial intelligence, with its chips powering many of the data centers and computing systems used to train and run AI models. Its advanced processors have also been a focus of U.S. export restrictions aimed at limiting China's access to cutting-edge semiconductor technology.

The Times reported last month that U.S. intelligence agencies had discovered that Huang had developed a close relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and chip buyer, and determined that she was feeding information directly to Beijing. The two are not related, according to the Times.

Alice Huang was previously a television reporter in China before becoming a top executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, which has become one of Nvidia's biggest customers in Southeast Asia. Megaspeed bought more than $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over the past two years, according to the Times.

Related:

Oracle expands chip supply deal with Nvidia, adds Google and Cerebras offerings

Oracle said on Tuesday it is expanding its cloud AI ​chip deals with Nvidia while also diversifying to add offerings from Nvidia rivals such as Alphabet's Google and Cerebras Systems.

President Donald Trump addressed the reports at his Halloween party, calling the situation "very complex" and saying he hoped everything was OK with Jensen Huang, who serves on the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The president has called Huang "smart" and "amazing," insisting that Huang accompany him on foreign trips.

"I've always found Jensen Huang to be very aboveboard," Trump told reporters on Oct. 31, adding that the administration would look into the matter "very closely."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday as he was departing the U.S. for a G7 meeting in Paris that he could not address the situation with Huang.

"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, the world's most valuable company, has regularly surpassed Wall Street's earnings expectations in the past three years since its high-end chips emerged as AI's best building blocks. The Santa Clara, California-based company reported quarterly profits of $59.69 billion in August.

Related topics