Nvidia Board Opens Independent Inquiry After Reports Its CEO Was a Target of Chinese Espionage
Seven Lights
Nvidia’s board said Sunday it was opening an independent investigation into reports that chief executive Jensen Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, will oversee it.
The company said in a statement that the board was acting in light of recent reporting that Mr. Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. It said there was no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised, and that the inquiry will examine all available information.
In a memo to employees shared with NBC News, Mr. Huang said, “I was unfaithful to my wife,” and added that his actions hurt her and their children and that there was no excuse.
The New York Times and the Financial Times reported this month that Alice Huang, an unrelated Chinese businesswoman whose Singapore-based company had bought Nvidia’s advanced chips, was under surveillance by US intelligence agencies and had been recruited to spy by China’s principal intelligence service. The outlets reported her purported goal was to persuade Mr. Huang to lobby US officials to allow chip exports to China. The Financial Times reported the two had a romantic relationship.
Reporting on the relationship began on Oct. 29, when the Times said US authorities had concerns about Ms. Huang’s intelligence connections and that President Trump had been briefed. The Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 31 that intelligence authorities in the United States, Singapore and Taiwan each had reason to believe she was a Chinese spy.
Three House Republican committee chairs asked Mr. Huang on Nov. 5 to brief Congress behind closed doors on the relationship and on Nvidia’s controls over sensitive information, giving him until Nov. 11 to set a date. They said lawmakers needed to determine “the extent to which U.S. national security has been placed at risk.” Senator Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said Congress “will investigate and get answers.”
Nvidia has repeatedly denied that the relationship was anything but a typical business contact and has said no sensitive information was shared with Ms. Huang. The Chinese government has denied engaging with her to spy on Mr. Huang. NBC News said it had not confirmed either report.
Nvidia, the world’s second-largest publicly traded company at a market value of nearly $4.5 trillion, makes the chips at the center of American artificial-intelligence computing. Its most advanced products are largely barred from sale in China, which has set a 2030 deadline to surpass US AI systems. Mr. Huang, 63, received the National Medal of Science from Mr. Trump in October.
No date for the congressional briefing had been set.