On Sunday, Nov. 8, Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang, 63, acknowledged an extramarital affair in an open letter on the company’s website, with an apology addressed to his wife and the company. However, the letter does not name the person Huang had the affair with. The same day, Nvidia announced its own independent inquiry into whether Huang had been “the target of a foreign intelligence effort.” The New York Times has reported that American intelligence concluded the woman linked to him, Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, was collecting information on behalf of Beijing.

Meanwhile, we are all watching as one man’s misbehavior has the whole stock market in a chokehold, just like a script for a corny telenovela. However, this time, the fallout is being counted in billions of dollars. “I support the investigation and will cooperate fully. I love our country and our company. I am committed to protecting NVIDIA and supporting America’s national security,” Huang wrote.

Alice Huang Went From Chinese State TV to Megaspeed

Alice Huang, no relation to the Nvidia chief, appears beside him in photos from banquets and golf outings, CNN reported. Travel records from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that the network obtained list her as Huang Le, a 43-year-old Chinese national. Before her finance career, she was a reporter at China’s state broadcaster. Photos placed the two together at an upscale California golf resort by September 2024, and after a group dinner in Taipei in May 2025, they left in the same car.

She served as a director of Megaspeed International, a cloud and data center company based in Singapore, from March to November 2023, according to Singapore corporate records. Some analysts estimate Megaspeed has since bought more than $4 billion in Nvidia chips, making it one of the company’s biggest customers in Asia. Where Alice Huang is now is not known, and she has not spoken publicly.

In October, Nvidia told the Times there was nothing “unusual or unexpected” about the relationship. “Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year,” the company said, according to CNN.

The Affair Turned Into a Question About Nvidia’s Chips in China

The scandal has sharpened fears that China may have obtained Nvidia’s most advanced chips, the AP reported. U.S. export controls limit which Nvidia chips can be sold to China, and Megaspeed faces accusations that it passed restricted Nvidia chips on to Chinese companies. On Tuesday, The Information reported that a web of companies tied to Alice Huang, her husband, and her sister funneled Nvidia chips worth no less than $7.5 billion to Chinese firms, according to Reuters, which noted that the report relied on two people who know her and that Reuters could not confirm it on its own.

Megaspeed has denied wrongdoing and described itself as a “compliant and legal company,” CNN reported. As of Sunday, Nvidia said it had no reason to believe any state or company secrets had been exposed, according to the network. “Every China license now gets read through this story,” Patrick Moorhead, CEO of Moor Insights & Strategy, told CNBC.

Nvidia’s Stock Took the Hit, and Shareholders Sued

Nvidia closed Monday at $178.67 a share, down $7.97, or 4.27%, according to a shareholder lawsuit cited by Politico, and The Guardian reported the drop wiped roughly $190 billion off the company’s market value. The stock slid more than 3% further Tuesday morning, as the wider market sold off after October inflation came in hotter than expected. The shares had lost about 11% of their value since the previous Wednesday.

The Rosen Law Firm filed the suit in California federal court five minutes after Monday’s closing bell, accusing Nvidia and Huang of misleading shareholders by failing to disclose the affair and the national security concerns it raised. The class action, led by retail investor Mark Kistenmacher, seeks unspecified damages, but Nvidia is yet to answer.

Trump Defends Huang, and Beijing Calls It a Smear

“I know the FBI is looking into it in terms of something else, and I think that he’ll be in good shape,” President Donald Trump told reporters in the White House briefing room on Monday. “He said he had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy,” Trump added, after saying he had spoken with Huang that day. Trump, who is scheduled to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, was noncommittal about raising the matter there.

Democrats, who will control both chambers of Congress in January, want answers. “We’re going to need a full briefing, specifically as it relates to the Nvidia issue, so we can all get to the bottom of what has happened,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. Meanwhile, Huang has been asked to brief three House committees behind closed doors about his ties to Megaspeed.

“The so-called Chinese spy allegation is unsubstantiated. It is nothing but smears against China,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Monday.

Moorhead expects the scandal to prompt more export-control legislation. “Jensen has been Nvidia’s lead voice on China, and that voice is weaker,” he told CNBC.

Tags: Nvidia