From Fortune · Beatrice Nolan · · 2m
Huang's China ties under fire after spy affair
Nvidia's CEO admitted to an affair with a woman U.S. intelligence believes worked for China, reviving scrutiny of his push to expand sales there.
In brief
Nvidia's CEO admitted to an affair with a woman U.S. intelligence believes worked for China, reviving scrutiny of his push to expand sales there. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confessed to an affair with a suspected Chinese spy, prompting a board investigation and congressional scrutiny of his efforts to expand chip sales…
Huang admits affair with suspected spy
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confessed to an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a woman U.S.intelligence agencies reportedly believe worked as a Chinese spy.
“There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”
Timing raises questions about his China push
Before the affair became public, Huang told Fortune in mid-October that Nvidia could be of great service to China and saw a large and growing opportunity there.
“I think the opportunity in China is large and growing, just like the AI market across the world is large and growing.”
U.S. has restricted Nvidia chips to China for years
The Biden administration imposed export controls in 2022 barring Nvidia from selling its most advanced AI chips to China to slow Beijing's AI progress and military applications. Successive rule changes cut off scaled-down alternatives too.
Huang complained of losing market dominance
In October 2025, after export controls and Beijing's pushback shut Nvidia out of the market, Huang complained the company had gone from 95% market share in China to 0%.
Trump reversed some restrictions in December
In December 2025, President Trump allowed Nvidia to ship its H200 chips to approved Chinese customers, with the U.S. government taking a 25% cut. The decision came after months of lobbying by Huang.
Suspected spy worked at Nvidia's largest customer
U.S. officials reportedly believe Alice Huang worked for China's Ministry of State Security. She was an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center operator that became one of Nvidia's largest customers over two years.
Megaspeed bought billions in Nvidia equipment
Megaspeed's Malaysian affiliate bought at least 4.8 billion dollars in equipment containing Nvidia chips between June 2024 and February 2026.U.S.officials have scrutinized the company since 2024 over suspicions it helped Chinese firms evade export controls.
Board launches investigation into security breach
Nvidia's board announced a committee of independent directors would examine whether company secrets or national security had been compromised.The board said it had no reason to believe either had been.
Congress demands briefing from Huang next week
Republican chairs of three House committees asked Huang to attend a private briefing the day after Nvidia reports quarterly earnings.Lawmakers are likely to press him on whether his push into China has put U.S.
The one thing
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confessed to an affair with a suspected Chinese spy, prompting a board investigation and congressional scrutiny of his efforts to expand chip sales to China.
