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US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on the 9th that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating an affair between Jensen Huang, CEO of semiconductor giant Nvidia, and a suspected Chinese spy.
Late last month, it was reported that the US government believes Jensen Huang was the target of Chinese espionage.
In response, Jensen Huang admitted to being "unfaithful" to his wife and apologized for hurting her and their children. On the 9th, the company said it was "committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America's national security" and would cooperate with any investigation initiated by the company.
Under these circumstances, Mr. Trump answered questions from reporters on the same day.
Trump said the FBI was conducting an investigation, but did not provide details or when it would begin. The FBI did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.
Trump also told reporters that he spoke to Jensen Huang on the phone earlier in the day "just to see how he's feeling, how he's doing."
"I asked him, 'Did you know she was a spy?' He said, 'I had no idea she was a spy,' and I truly believe him," Trump said.
When asked by reporters when he learned of the relationship between the two, Trump answered "within a certain period of time," without specifying a specific time.
Trump described Jensen Huang as a "fine person" and said he was "very confident he will be OK" after the investigation. She added: ``I hope there's no problem. I think he's in a lot of pain.''
In late October, the New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence officials consider Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), a Chinese businessman who had a close relationship with Jensen Huang, to be a spy for China. Although the two have the same last name, they are not related by blood.
The newspaper also reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a memo to senior U.S. officials this spring warning that Jensen Huang had close ties to Chinese spies.
Alice Huang was the managing director of Singaporean company MegaSpeed. The company had a business relationship with Nvidia.
China denies that Jensen Huang was targeted. China's Foreign Ministry said the claims were "totally baseless and based on speculation, and are intended to defame and demonize China."
Class action lawsuit against company and CEO
Nvidia says it has no reason to believe that its confidential information or national security has been compromised. The company has requested an independent investigation into the incident involving a suspected Chinese spy.
The company has the second highest market capitalization in the world after Apple. The company is developing computer semiconductors that play a central role in artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Nvidia's stock price fell more than 4% on the 9th in response to the news surrounding CEO Jensen Huang, and the company's market capitalization fell by about $250 billion (approximately 39 trillion yen).
The company has become one of the key players in the AI competition between the US and China. U.S. authorities treat the export of Nvidia products to China as a national security issue.
Mr. Trump has expressed concern that if China were to take the lead in the field of AI, China's military and surveillance capabilities would dramatically improve.
Regarding the recently revealed relationship between Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, a class action lawsuit was filed in California on the 9th against Jensen Huang and Nvidia.
The plaintiffs allege that the company misled shareholders by lying to the media about the relationship between Alice Huang and Jensen Huang, who are accused of being Chinese spies and "suspected of attempting to smuggle Nvidia products into China."
The BBC has contacted Nvidia for comment on the lawsuit.
Jensen Huang has also been asked to attend a joint closed-door briefing by several federal committees.
In their request for an appearance, the committee chairs asked for clarification on "NVIDIA's security measures against espionage by foreign adversaries and its publicly reported interactions with Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, a member of the intelligence community of the People's Republic of China (PRC)."
It is unclear whether Jensen Huang will attend. Nvidia declined to comment. The BBC has also contacted the various committees.
Several employees at Nvidia's headquarters in Santa Clara, California, told the BBC on Tuesday that business was business as usual despite the increased attention to the company.
Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang and two other engineers. The company initially developed computer semiconductors for gaming, but shifted its focus to AI-related areas. This has made it one of the most valuable and influential companies in the world in recent years.
Nvidia's AI chips have become a major focus of competition between the U.S. and China, and the U.S. government has previously restricted where Nvidia's advanced products can be sold.
Nvidia's second most advanced semiconductor, the H200, was previously regulated by the U.S. government over concerns it could give China's technology industry an advantage over the United States.
Meanwhile, Jensen Huang has long opposed restrictions on sales to China. He has argued that it would be better for the global spread of AI to be driven by American technology.
The Trump administration announced in January that it would allow the company to sell its H200 chips to Chinese customers under certain conditions.
NVIDIA's cutting-edge AI semiconductor ``GB200 (Blackwell)'' is still not approved for sale in the Chinese market.
(English article Trump says FBI investigating Nvidia boss's affair with alleged Chinese spy)
