Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun “Jensen” Huang M.S. ’92 admitted on Sunday to having an extramarital affair with a partner company executive who is a Chinese spy, according to American intelligence. In response, the Nvidia board has opened an independent investigation and stated that Jensen Huang will retain his leadership role.
Jensen Huang and Nvidia have closely collaborated with Stanford in the past. In 2010, the Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center was dedicated to Jensen Huang after he and his wife donated $30 million toward its construction. Two years ago, Nvidia partnered with Stanford to create the Marlowe supercomputer cluster for University researchers.
Earlier this year, the Marlowe-Nvidia joint initiative began connecting Stanford researchers with Nvidia research teams and solutions architects via private guidance sessions.
The Daily has reached out to the University for comment.
Chinese citizen Alice Huang, the woman who was named in the affair, has been under scrutiny since last year when her company, Megaspeed, was implicated in a potential plot to subvert U.S. export law and supply Nvidia chips to China
Based in Singapore, Megaspeed is a cloud computing and data center company that provides infrastructure to corporations as an official Nvidia Cloud Partner (NCP). Alice Huang’s exact position in Megaspeed is currently unclear; however, some evidence has indicated that she may be the CEO and/or chairwoman of the company.
Alice Huang was placed back in the spotlight after a New York Times (NYT) article revealed two weeks ago that she was a Chinese intelligence asset who was positioned closely to Jensen Huang. On Friday, the NYT released another article that alleged Alice Huang was a spy recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) to gather intelligence on Jensen Huang.
The MSS recruited Alice Huang as part of a larger effort to collect intelligence on Nvidia artificial intelligence (AI) chips and potentially push the company to make frontier technology available to China, according to the NYT.
On Sunday, Jensen Huang sent an email to Nvidia employees, now released to the public, admitting to an intimate relationship with Alice Huang and announcing that he will cooperate with an independent investigation into the matter. In the email, Jensen Huang also apologized to his family and employees, emphasized his support for American national security and recommitted to Nvidia.
“There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” Jensen Huang wrote. “I love our country and our company. I am committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America’s national security.”
Nvidia’s board also released a statement confirming the independent investigation. The board said that Jensen Huang will fully cooperate with the review and stated that they did not believe Alice Huang managed to obtain confidential information.
“The Board prioritizes U.S. national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of Nvidia and its shareholders,” the board wrote. “While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information.”
There has been no indication that Jensen Huang will step down. He wrote in his email that he hopes to earn back the confidence of Nvidia employees. The board’s communication indicated that such confidence has not been completely erased.
“The Board has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team and will provide further updates as appropriate,” they wrote in their statement.
Nvidia has not yet responded to a request for comment from The Daily.
President Donald Trump, who has previously worked closely with Jensen Huang, defended the Nvidia founder on Sunday night.
“I think he’s an honorable guy,” Trump said to reporters. “I think he probably has an excuse for it.”
Trump stated that Jensen Huang should remain CEO of Nvidia. The president is set to attend meetings in Asia next week, including one with Chinese President Xi Jinping. When a reporter asked about the trip, Trump indicated that he may take Jensen Huang with him.
“He dealt with somebody but, you know, so does everybody else,” he said.