Nvidia Board Opens Independent Inquiry as Jensen Huang Admits Affair

In a short statement, the board said a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, would oversee the inquiry. It said it had "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised", but that the inquiry would "examine all available information". The board said Huang fully supports the review and has committed to cooperating with it, and that it has confidence in him and his leadership team. It promised further updates "as appropriate".

The move brings the world's most valuable chipmaker formally into a story that until now it had answered only through spokespeople. It also puts a formal governance process around the chief executive of the company whose processors dominate AI computing, at a time when Washington is debating how many of those processors may be sold to China.

Huang's Message to Staff

In a draft email to employees obtained by Axios, Huang wrote: "I owe my family and all of you an apology. I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did." He said he took "full responsibility" and had fallen short of his responsibilities to Nvidia's employees, board and shareholders. "Leading NVIDIA is the privilege of my life," he wrote. "I am fully committed to NVIDIA and will work to earn back your confidence."

John Rizzo, Nvidia's head of public policy communications, said in a statement quoted by Axios: "Today's news will not slow NVIDIA. Jensen is committed to continuing to lead NVIDIA as CEO without interruption."

The board's statement does not mention the relationship. Bloomberg reported that the inquiry would look at whether Huang was targeted by a foreign espionage plot, after he admitted to employees that he had been unfaithful.

The Megaspeed Connection

The reports that prompted the inquiry centre on Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that has been buying Nvidia's advanced chips. She is not related to Jensen Huang. The New York Times reported that US intelligence officials believe she was recruited by Chinese intelligence to gather information and potentially to push for Nvidia's most advanced chips to be made available in China despite export restrictions. The newspaper also reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw a classified memo warning senior Trump administration officials about the relationship. The Financial Times reported that US authorities believed the two had a romantic relationship.

Before Sunday, Nvidia had played down the contacts. It told the Financial Times that Huang meets "thousands of customer executives every year". In an earlier statement it said regional cloud customers receive routine business information, not sensitive trade secrets, and that if the US government considered any person a threat to American industry, "it would let us know".

The New York Times has separately reported that Commerce Department officials have been examining whether Megaspeed helped Chinese companies get around US export controls.

Pressure From Congress

The inquiry adds to mounting political scrutiny. Three House Republican committee chairs, Brian Mast of Foreign Affairs, John Moolenaar of the Select Committee on China and Rick Crawford of Intelligence, have asked Huang to attend an in-person, closed-door briefing on November 18. Democratic senator Chris Coons has said Congress will investigate the matter.

The proposed briefing falls the day after Nvidia reports its third-quarter results on November 17, when analysts are likely to press management on the investigation alongside demand for its AI chips. The board has not said how long its review will take or whether its findings will be made public.