The board of Nvidia is reportedly planning to remove chief executive Jensen Huang after he admitted to an extramarital affair with a woman accused of being an alleged spy, a development that may have put the multi-trillion-dollar company at risk. The board was expected to meet as soon as Wednesday to decide Mr Huang's future at the chipmaker he co-founded in 1993 and led to become one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Affair with Alleged Spy
On Sunday, Mr Huang, 61, confessed in a memo to staff about having an affair with Alice Huang, a Chinese entrepreneur and founder of Megaspeed. She had been under investigation for allegedly passing information to Beijing. It is unclear when the relationship began, but reports indicate Ms Huang boasted about their closeness as early as June 2024.
In early 2025, Ms Huang pitched an AI chips deal to Chinese-based investors, highlighting her ability to secure Nvidia's graphics processing units and her commercial relationship with Alibaba. She sought their investment for a southeast Asia data centre project worth several hundred million dollars but did not disclose her relationship with Mr Huang.
Investigation and Market Impact
At the time, US officials were briefed that Ms Huang was working for Beijing's Ministry of State Security to learn about American-made AI chips and possibly persuade Nvidia to make its most sophisticated semiconductors available in China, according to The New York Times. US officials have said the Megaspeed founder has relationships with executives at the highest levels of the AI chip industry.
Separately, Washington was investigating Megaspeed over concerns it may have been involved in smuggling hardware to China, prompting the government to ask Nvidia to audit the firm last year. In its initial report, the chipmaker said the hardware was fully accounted for, but records obtained by Bloomberg News show that Megaspeed had imported 50,000 more chips than Nvidia found in its data centres. Nvidia then pledged in December 2025 to visit Megaspeed's data centres again; it is not clear whether this occurred.
Shareholder Lawsuit
Nvidia stock has lost more than $300 billion in market value since news of the affair broke. On Monday, Nvidia and Mr Huang were sued by shareholders, who accused the defendants of misleading them about the affair before it caused Nvidia shares to dip 4.3 percent by close that day, reducing the company's market capitalization by approximately $190 billion.
