New York (AFP) - The American chip giant Nvidia announced the opening of an independent internal investigation following media reports that its president, Jensen Huang, was the target of a spying operation by China, coinciding with the latter's admission of having an extramarital affair.
Published on: 08/11/2026 - 23:37 Last updated: 09/11/2026 - 00:21
The company's board of directors confirmed in a statement that the decision followed "recent press reports that indicated that the founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, was the target of foreign intelligence operations," without mentioning the country in question.
The statement added that the board “trusts Jensen and his team,” and that the CEO “supports this review and pledges to cooperate with it.”
He continued that America's "national and economic security" are a priority for the company, noting that a committee of independent board members, "with the assistance of independent external legal advisors," will supervise this investigation, even though the board "sees no reason to believe" that the company's national security or secrets have been compromised.
In late November, the American New York Times reported that US intelligence officials concluded that a Chinese executive linked to the Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed was working for Chinese intelligence and transmitting information to Beijing.
In a letter addressed to the company's employees, board of directors, partners and shareholders around the world and published on Sunday, Huang admitted to having an affair with a woman and apologized to both his family and employees.
"I cheated on my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am very sorry," he said, expressing at the same time his "full commitment" to the company.
For his part, a spokesman for the group told Agence France-Presse that “recent events will not discourage NVIDIA,” noting that “Jensen is determined to continue his duties as CEO of the company.”
On the other hand, Dan Ives, an analyst and director of Yorkville Ives, considered that Huang is currently in a very critical situation, noting that the case will cause “a series of investigations in Congress, at the very least.”
He added that Nvidia will suffer huge losses, noting that there is a "huge risk" that Huang will lose his position in the long term.
When asked about the report on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he could not comment, indicating that the matter was an “internal matter of the company.”
While China described the reports as mere “baseless speculation,” US President Donald Trump expressed his support for Huang, whom he described as a “genius.”
Huang was among the members of the business delegation that accompanied the US President during his visit to Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, last May.
For its part, the Financial Times reported earlier this week that Nvidia had issued instructions to its partners in data centers to restrict their dealings with Chinese customers.
The newspaper quoted five informed sources as saying that Nvidia's customers in the cloud computing services sector must now sell at least 51% of their services to non-Chinese companies.
© 2026 AFP
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