Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has admitted to having an extramarital affair, a revelation that comes as the company’s board announced an investigation into reports that he was the “target of a foreign intelligence effort.”
In a note to Nvidia staff, Huang said he was “unfaithful” and hurt his wife and children. He did not name the other person in the affair.
“I take full responsibility for what I did and the hurt I caused, and I accept the criticism that comes with it,” Huang, 63, said, adding that he supports the company’s investigation. “I am committed to protecting NVIDIA and supporting America’s national security.”
The admission marks a stunning personal turn for one of the world’s most prominent business leaders, whose company has become the poster child for the AI boom and the second-most valuable company globally.
The other person in the affair has been identified in multiple reports as Alice Huang, an executive from Singapore-based tech company Megaspeed. She is of no relation to the Nvidia CEO.
US officials reportedly suspect Alice Huang has fed intelligence to China and helped smuggle advanced artificial intelligence chips into the country.
The Financial Times previously reported that US intelligence believed the two were in a romantic relationship.
Nvidia had previously defended the CEO’s meetings, saying they were “not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year.” The company also said concerns about illegal chip diversion were “debunked last year.”
Nvidia said in a Sunday press release that a committee of independent directors and outside counsel will oversee its investigation.
“The Board prioritizes US national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders,” the statement said. But the board “has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised.”
A spokesperson told CNN that Huang is “committed to continuing to lead NVIDIA as CEO without interruption.”
Dan Ives, partner and senior managing director at merchant bank Yorkville & Ives Co., called the news “a black eye moment for Jensen” that will increase scrutiny of chip sales to China, which Huang has previously lobbied for.
The investigation will also cast a shadow over Nvidia’s share price, Ives added, as investors question whether Huang will remain at the helm of the company he helped found.
Jacob Ward, a tech journalist and CNN contributor, said corporate boards historically tend to oust chief executives caught having extramarital affairs within days.
For Nvidia, which holds an outsized role in AI development, global growth and the US stock market, any existential questions about its future will have even greater economic and geopolitical implications. Another unusual factor is that the company has no clear successor for Huang, he added.
“It is a core of the American economy, if not the world economy right now. And this guy who is famously a very, very central commander of all of this stuff, suddenly being caught in this way and especially being caught perhaps being dishonest about it, it’s an incredibly big deal,” Ward said.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump told reporters that he has not spoken to Huang since Nvidia announced the investigation, but said he was a “fine person” and praised his contribution to the country.
When asked if he wished he had taken action when briefed on the intelligence about alleged spying last year, Trump said, “No I don’t think so. I think he’s an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it.”
On Thursday, Republican chairmen of three influential House panels — the committees on Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Communist Party and Intelligence — said in a news release that they sent a letter to Huang requesting his appearance before their committees to answer questions about his relationship with Megaspeed and the company’s security protocols against foreign espionage.
“Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the PRC’s access to sensitive US technology and information,” the chairmen wrote.
Huang had previously joked in an interview that he wooed his wife Lori Huang, whom he met in college when he was 17 and she was 19, by offering to help with her homework and vowing to become a CEO by age 30. The couple married in 1985 and have two children.
In 1993, he co-founded Nvidia, which has seen its market capitalization swell to more than $4 trillion as the rise of AI has turbocharged demand for the computer chips it designs.
