Nvidia opened an investigation into whether foreign spies targeted Jensen Huang after its chief executive admitted an affair with a businesswoman, the company said in a statement.
A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside lawyers, will oversee the investigation. Nvidia said it does not believe anyone compromised its secrets, leaving unresolved whether the relationship exposed company information.
CNA's East Asia Tonight, published Nov. 9, reported the investigation followed Huang's message to employees acknowledging the affair and accepting responsibility for his actions. Huang did not identify the other person involved.
The company said Huang fully supports the investigation and is cooperating with it. The inquiry will examine whether he was the target of a foreign espionage operation, a question the company has yet to resolve.
China's Foreign Ministry rejected allegations that Beijing had spied on Huang. It called the allegations baseless and described them as attempts to discredit China.
The New York Times reported last month that U.S. authorities had identified a former executive at Singapore-based Mega Speed as a Chinese spy. The woman is a Chinese national who previously worked as a reporter in China.
U.S. intelligence monitored her communications and found contact with an American citizen later identified as Huang, the newspaper reported. The surveillance indicated that the pair had become close and that she allegedly passed information to Beijing.
What information she allegedly supplied remains unclear. The Financial Times reported last week that the pair had a romantic relationship and that China's Ministry of State Security had recruited her.
Mega Speed bought about $5 billion worth of chips over the past two years, the New York Times reported. The Singapore company is one of Nvidia's biggest customers in Southeast Asia.
U.S. authorities had scrutinised Mega Speed since 2024 over suspicions that it helped Beijing obtain Nvidia artificial intelligence chips. Nvidia previously described its business with Mega Speed as routine and rejected allegations of chip smuggling.
Mega Speed said it could not comment on what it called a media trial, but welcomed an investigation. Neither the nature of any information allegedly passed to Beijing nor whether Nvidia technology was involved has been established.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters he had not spoken to Huang about the allegation. “I think he's an honorable guy,” Trump said.
His comments did not address what information, if any, Huang might have disclosed.
