Nvidia’s shares slid around 6 percent on Monday after chief executive Jensen Huang admitted having an affair with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy and the company’s board said it would open an independent investigation into the matter.
In a memo to employees, Huang said he had been “unfaithful” to his wife, apologised and said he would “cooperate fully” with the board’s probe into potential US national security issues raised by the affair.
“I am proud and grateful to be an American,” Huang wrote.
Nvidia said it had no reason to believed that its proprietary information or US national security had been compromised, but the firm’s board said in a statement that it would open an investigation in “light of recent reporting that founder and chief executive Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort”.
The affair came to light when US intelligence investigators were probing a Singapore-based data centre company called Megaspeed that they believed was involved in efforts to smuggle advanced Nvidia chips into China, the reported late last month, following previous reports about questions around Megaspeed.
Surveillance of one of Megaspeed’s principal executives, Chinese citizen Alice Huang or Huang Le, indicated she had formed a close relationship with Jensen Huang, the report said.
National security
The White House was reportedly briefed on the matter a year ago, and last spring Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a memo to Washington officials warning that Huang was in a close relationship with a Chinese spy.
Alice Huang is reportedly no longer associated with Megaspeed.
China’s foreign ministry said the espionage claims were “entirely groundless”.
The illicit transport of advanced Nvidia chips into China has become a key political issue, amid intense AI rivalry between the US and China.
Earlier this year Nvidia reportedly ordered its data centre customers to limit Chinese clients to 49 percent of their sales, in a move to reduce Chinese companies’ access to its technology through lease arrangements.