Three years of the Jensen Huang scandal: affair, spy allegations and a board probe

Allegations that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang may have been entangled in a Chinese espionage operation are casting new scrutiny on his actions over the past three years. Even after US authorities became aware of the suspected ties, Huang maintained a close relationship with President Donald Trump and pushed to ease semiconductor export restrictions on China — turning what began as an extramarital affair into a controversy touching on national security and chip policy.

On Monday (local time), the Wall Street Journal published a chronological account of events stretching from the 2023 founding of Singapore data center company Megaspeed to Nvidia's board launching an independent investigation Sunday.

The story begins in 2023. Megaspeed, spun off from Chinese firm Sevenroad Holdings, set up data centers across Southeast Asia using Nvidia semiconductors and began leasing cloud computing capacity.

Alice Huang, an executive at the company, was photographed with Jensen Huang at an after-party following a technology conference in Taipei in June 2024. At the time, the two were among a group of tech industry executives.

The pair met again at Computex in Taipei that July. After the event, a photo posted to Netsunder's LinkedIn account showed Alice Huang — adorned with elaborate jewelry — sitting beside Jensen Huang at a bar, the two drinking whisky together.

In the second half of 2024, the US Commerce Department opened an investigation into whether Megaspeed had illegally smuggled Nvidia's advanced semiconductors into China, potentially in violation of US export controls.

Megaspeed was reportedly Nvidia's largest customer in Southeast Asia. Since its founding in 2023, the company is said to have purchased at least $4.6 billion worth of Nvidia chips, raising concerns that it may have served as a conduit for Chinese firms to circumvent US export restrictions on advanced American semiconductors.

In May 2025, the two were seen together again at a private dinner during a technology conference in Taipei. They were also spotted at a Chinese restaurant in the city, where Jensen Huang kissed Alice Huang on the cheek before the two left in the same car. Six months earlier, a New York-based research firm had raised concerns about their unusually close relationship. Earlier that year, US government officials had drafted documents describing the two as having a romantic relationship.

On Oct. 9 of that year, The New York Times reported that federal investigators were examining both the possibility that Megaspeed had funneled semiconductors to China and the nature of the pair's relationship.

Even so, Huang moved to strengthen his ties with Trump and push for looser semiconductor export rules on China. At an Nvidia event in Washington on Oct. 28, he publicly praised the president's policies.

Two days later, Trump traveled to Busan to hold a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Huang had asked the administration to allow Nvidia to sell its advanced Blackwell semiconductors to China, but China hawks within the administration blocked the request.

On Dec. 8, however, Trump agreed to permit exports of the H200 semiconductor — a less powerful chip than the Blackwell — to China, on the condition that 25 percent of related revenue be paid to the federal government.

According to the Wall Street Journal and other outlets, Alice Huang worked about two decades ago as a journalist for Chinese state broadcaster CCTV and regional network Hunan TV, before moving into finance — serving as a director at HSBC, a director at Shanghai Hexi Investment and a vice president at state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group.

Those credentials, drawn from a profile on a Chinese private equity information site, have not been fully verified. The New York Post said it contacted Hunan TV but could not confirm her employment there, and found no record of her at CCTV either. Her reported stints at HSBC and CITIC Securities also remain unconfirmed.

Alice Huang presented herself as an executive at Megaspeed, but US intelligence has concluded she was in fact an operative for China's Ministry of State Security. Singaporean and Taiwanese authorities believe Chinese intelligence recruited her after confirming that she and Jensen Huang had developed a close personal relationship. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

By spring 2026, concerns within the US government about the relationship between Huang and Alice Huang had grown more concrete.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw the drafting of a classified memo warning about the pair's personal relationship. Around the same time, the Justice Department was leading the investigation into Megaspeed.

Despite all of this, Huang and Trump continued to move in lockstep. On May 13, Huang joined Trump's China trip at the last minute, boarding Air Force One in Alaska.

On Sept. 14, Trump called Huang directly during a recording of the "All-In" podcast. The two exchanged praise and spoke approvingly of the administration's deregulatory stance toward the AI industry.

On Oct. 8, Trump awarded Huang the National Medal of Science.

But the situation shifted sharply later that month. Between Oct. 29 and Nov. 1, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other US outlets reported that American intelligence suspected Alice Huang of having ties to Chinese intelligence and of having maintained a close relationship with Huang.

Nvidia said it was routine for Huang to meet with executives from countless client companies around the world. It has not been confirmed, however, whether Alice Huang actually worked on behalf of Chinese intelligence or whether any confidential information was passed through Huang.

As the controversy grew, Congress moved as well. On Wednesday, three Republican House committee chairs asked Huang for a classified briefing on national security concerns related to the matter.

Sunday, Nvidia's board launched an independent investigation to determine whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence service and whether any company secrets had been shared through his relationship with Alice Huang.

Huang also acknowledged the affair in a message to employees, apologizing to his family and colleagues. He said he would cooperate with the board's investigation.

Even so, Trump did not withdraw his support. Asked whether Huang should remain at the helm of Nvidia, Trump replied, "Yes. Absolutely," adding, "He's an honorable man. There's probably a good explanation for it."

Huang's continued push to ease semiconductor export restrictions on China — even as US investigators and intelligence officials raised alarms — and Trump's public backing have emerged as a separate flashpoint in the scandal. It has not been established, however, that the relationship between the two men improperly influenced US semiconductor policy decisions.