Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang acknowledged on Sunday that he had an extramarital affair with a businesswoman whom U.S. intelligence agencies say is a Chinese spy, a disclosure that lands just as Democrats prepare to take the reins of Congress promising far tougher oversight of the world's most valuable chipmaker.
The woman, Alice Huang, is affiliated with Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer that has been accused of helping restricted Chinese companies obtain Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips. In a note to employees on Sunday, Huang apologized for being "unfaithful to my wife" and said the company's board was investigating any related national security concerns. The board said it has "confidence in Jensen."
Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has run it ever since, building a personal fortune of more than $150 billion. He is the company's sole public face, with no clear second-in-command, and has said he has 60 direct reports and reviews every employee's salary. Yet unlike many of his tech peers, he is not chairman: he is one of 11 board members, and the board has no designated chair.
Democratic leaders were pressing Huang over China's access to advanced Nvidia chips and the company's lobbying well before last week's midterm elections delivered the party sweeping majorities in the House and Senate. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said days before the vote, as the spy story first surfaced, that "we must pass bipartisan legislation to keep our advanced AI technology out of China's hands." In June, Huang declined her invitation to testify before the Senate Banking Committee. On Saturday, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, who is in line to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote on X that "Congress will investigate and get answers," following a New York Times report on Friday.
The political shift has already rattled investors. Nvidia shares plunged 12% in the two days after the election, leading a slide in AI-related stocks on fears that incoming lawmakers and newly passed ballot measures will slow the data center buildout.
The personal revelations add a new layer of risk. "Nvidia is not an ordinary company and Jensen is not an ordinary CEO; he IS Nvidia," Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon wrote on Sunday, noting it is unclear who would succeed him. Patrick Moorhead, CEO of Moor Insights & Strategy, said in an email that "Jensen holding so much power is why Nvidia moves faster than anyone." One investor close to Huang told CNBC that, depending on what the board finds, he could foresee Huang taking a leave of absence.
Nvidia pushed back on that possibility. "Today's news will not slow Nvidia," a company spokesperson said, adding that Huang is committed to leading the company "without interruption."
Scrutiny is coming from both parties. Huang has been a leading advocate for allowing more chip exports to China and joined President Donald Trump on Air Force One for a China trip in May, raising questions about what the administration knew. Sam Bresnick, a research fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, said determining "to what extent was the Trump administration aware of what was going on" will be "very high up on the Democrats' lists of people to investigate." House Republican leaders have also asked Huang for a closed-door briefing later this month. Trump defended Huang on Sunday, calling him an "honorable guy" who has "done an amazing job for our country" and adding, "I think he probably has an excuse for it."
The turmoil arrives during a pivotal stretch. Nvidia-backed neoclouds CoreWeave and Nebius report earnings this week after each lost roughly half their market value over the past month, with investors worried about their debt loads as interest rates rise. Nvidia itself reports on Nov. 17, the Anthropic initial public offering looms, and Huang is scheduled to keynote a major Nvidia conference in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 1.
Bulls still point to relentless demand. Nvidia recently projected 70% sales growth in its upcoming fiscal year, and analysts polled by FactSet expect nearly $694 billion in fiscal 2028 revenue. "We believe demand for the company's products seems unlikely to be affected," Rasgon wrote, while cautioning that risks could rise as AI buildouts become an increasingly political issue.
