Key takeaways:
- Nvidia says an independent investigation is underway and it has no reason to believe its secrets or national security were compromised.
- House Republican committee leaders have requested a closed-door briefing with Jensen Huang, and Trump says the FBI is examining the matter.
- Short-seller Culper Research alleged in May that restricted Nvidia chips reached China through Southeast Asian intermediaries; Megaspeed denies helping Chinese companies obtain them.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang faces questions from U.S. lawmakers over his relationship with a former executive at a major buyer of the company’s AI chips, amid allegations that she worked for Chinese intelligence and concerns about whether restricted chips reached China through Southeast Asia.
Huang, 63, has acknowledged having an extramarital relationship while leading Nvidia. Media reports have identified the woman as Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed. The two are not related. According to The New York Times, U.S. intelligence officials believe she was recruited by Chinese intelligence to gather information about Jensen Huang and influence him to seek looser restrictions on chip sales to China. U.S. intelligence has not publicly released evidence supporting the allegation, and China denies it.
In a Sunday statement, Jensen Huang apologized to his family and Nvidia employees. Nvidia launched an independent investigation and said it had no reason to believe that “either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised.” There is no publicly available evidence that Alice Huang obtained sensitive Nvidia information or influenced the CEO’s decisions.
Republican leaders of three House committees have asked Huang to attend a closed-door briefing. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast said he was prepared to subpoena him if he did not respond by the end of Wednesday. President Donald Trump said Monday that the FBI was examining the matter, while calling Huang an “honourable guy”. Republican Senator Kevin Cramer called Tuesday for Huang to resign, citing what he described to Politico as a risk of extortion. Al Jazeera reported that media accounts on Wednesday said Nvidia was preparing to part ways with Huang; he had shown no sign of resigning.
Questions about Megaspeed predate the disclosure of the relationship. In May, Culper Research, a short-seller that disclosed a bet against Nvidia shares, published a report alleging that restricted Nvidia chips were being diverted to China through Southeast Asian intermediaries. Culper said corporate filings suggested Alibaba financed Megaspeed’s purchases. It also described Jensen Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang as “uncomfortably close,” citing images of them together at events.
Culper said Megaspeed had relatively few assets at the end of 2023 but spent $2.9 billion on Nvidia-powered servers within a year. Its report put purchases by Megaspeed and a Malaysian affiliate, Speedmatrix, at $4.8 billion over three years. Al Jazeera separately reported that Megaspeed bought more than $4.8 billion in Nvidia chips over about two years. Megaspeed denies allegations that it helped Chinese companies obtain restricted chips.
U.S. restrictions on sales of some advanced chips to China date to 2022 and reflect concerns about their potential military or intelligence uses. In a March letter, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jim Banks warned of “large-scale diversion” through Southeast Asian intermediaries and sought a suspension of certain Nvidia export licenses.
Experts told Al Jazeera that the relationship raises questions about what Alice Huang might have learned about Nvidia’s products, customers and discussions with U.S. officials, and whether it affected the company’s dealings with Megaspeed. Those questions remain unanswered. CBS News reported that Nvidia’s valuation fell $450 billion over two days; it did not establish a cause for the decline. China’s Foreign Ministry called claims of “Chinese spies” groundless.
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