Nvidia investigates Jensen Huang affair and suspected China spy links

Nvidia has opened an independent investigation into whether its chief executive, Jensen Huang, was targeted by Chinese intelligence after he admitted an extramarital affair with a woman US officials suspect of spying for Beijing.

In an email to staff, Huang said: 'I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There's no excuse for what I did. I'm deeply sorry.' Nvidia said its board had no reason to believe that company secrets or US national security were compromised. It said its inquiry would examine all available information. Huang said he would cooperate and remain in charge.

The New York Times reported that the relationship was with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman also referred to in some coverage as Alice Wang. US intelligence officials believe she worked with China's Ministry of State Security, according to the newspaper. She had led a Singapore-based data centre company that bought Nvidia chips. The New York Times report said the company may have been involved in diverting advanced chips to China despite US export controls.

Beijing denied the claims. China called them baseless and a smear intended to malign the country. The affair has put Nvidia at the centre of the US-China race over artificial intelligence. Nvidia designs some of the most advanced chips used to train and run AI models. The US has restricted their sale to China to try to keep Beijing behind.

Huang has lobbied President Donald Trump to relax those export rules. ITV reported that Nvidia's chips are used in about 80% of the market and that the company accounts for about 8% of the S&P 500. The New York Times reported that Trump was briefed about the intelligence concerns around Alice Huang about a year ago and took no action. Asked about the case, Trump said: 'I think he's an honourable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it.' He added that Huang had done an amazing job for the country.

The market reaction was immediate. Channel 4 reported that Nvidia shares fell around 5% in pre-market trading. When US markets opened, they were down about 8%, cutting more than $300 billion from Nvidia's market value before recovering slightly. ITV put the fall at nearly £250 billion. Channel 5 reported that hundreds of millions had been wiped off, a smaller figure than the billions cited by other channels. Most channels valued Nvidia at about $4.5 trillion. BBC One said more than $4 trillion and Channel 5 said nearly $5 trillion.

Republicans in Congress have called on Huang to brief them next week. BBC News reported that Democrats are expected to press the issue when they take control of key committees in January, including why the White House did not act on the intelligence. BBC News also heard from Sam Goodman of China's Strategic Risks Institute, who said the affair exposed a wider problem: 'we've outsourced national security to a handful of wealthy men who allegedly do not take their personal security very seriously.'

Gillian Tett, a Financial Times columnist and provost of King's College, Cambridge, told BBC News that Nvidia carried extraordinary key man risk. 'There is no succession plan that anyone's ever seen around Nvidia,' she said. On Sky News, Rowan said: 'There's no one who's more important.'

BBC One's security correspondent Frank Gardner described the allegations as a potential honey trap at the highest level. BBC One's economics editor Faisal Islam said the affair had become central to the AI boom because Nvidia's chips underpin the most powerful models. The disclosures come ahead of a planned meeting between Trump and China's President Xi Jinping in China next week. Nvidia's shares remained volatile, and the company's board, Congress and the White House now face questions about how a personal relationship became a national security case.