Nvidia CEO's affair becomes a national security problem

Nvidia’s chief executive Jensen Huang has admitted having an affair two days after the FT reported his alleged romantic relationship with a woman the US intelligence community believes was working as a spy for China.

Huang revealed the affair in an internal message to employees on Sunday that was obtained by the FT.

“I owe my family and all of you an apology,” Huang said in the message. “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”

In a separate statement, Nvidia said its board would open an independent investigation “in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.”

Huang said he would fully cooperate. “My responsibility is to serve you and be worthy of your trust,” he said. “I have fallen short of that responsibility. I am fully committed to Nvidia and will work to earn back your confidence.”

The FT reported on Friday that the US believed Huang had a romantic relationship with a Chinese woman who was recruited to spy for China’s Ministry of State Security intelligence agency.

American officials this year wrote a memo, based on information from US intelligence, which said the Nvidia boss had been romantically involved with Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based customer of the chipmaker, according to people familiar with the document.

The affair is a damaging blow to the Nvidia chief, who in recent years has become the face of the AI boom, one of the technology’s loudest champions, and transformed the Silicon Valley group into the first $5 trillion company.