Nvidia’s Board Opens a Probe, Giving the GPU-Chip Spy Saga a Major “Alt-Coin” Twist

Nvidia’s board of directors has opened an independent investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, the company said on Sunday. A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, will oversee the inquiry. “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,” the company said. It also “has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team.”

The investigation follows a Financial Times report that a U.S. government memo, written earlier this year based on intelligence information, said Huang had been romantically involved with Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Nvidia customer Megaspeed. The FT reported that U.S. intelligence believes she was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security. Nvidia declined to comment to the newspaper on the memo, while Huang’s Sunday email to staff did not name the person with whom he had an affair.

Lawmakers from both parties are seeking answers. Republican leaders asked Huang to appear privately before the House China, foreign affairs and intelligence committees, according to the FT. Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), who will chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from January, said in a tweet that “Congress will investigate and get answers.”

The FT report built on a New York Times investigation from last month that said U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, was a Chinese intelligence asset and that surveillance revealed a close relationship with Jensen Huang. President Donald Trump was briefed on the findings roughly a year ago and chose not to act on them, according to the Times.

U.S. officials suspected Megaspeed of helping Chinese companies circumvent restrictions on advanced AI chips, and the Commerce Department’s investigation into the company has been handed to the Justice Department, the Times reported. Megaspeed’s sister company in Malaysia bought at least $4.8 billion worth of AI equipment containing Nvidia chips between June 2024 and February 2026, according to trade records cited by the newspaper. Nvidia told the Times that Huang’s interactions with Ms. Huang were “not unusual or unexpected” and that customers like Megaspeed receive “ordinary business information.” Megaspeed has retained outside counsel for an internal investigation, Ms. Huang did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for comment, and China’s embassy in Washington dismissed the allegations as “groundless smears and slanders.”