The probe comes after Huang admitted to a romantic relationship with an executive suspected of being a Chinese intelligence agent, the report said. U.S. officials concluded last year that Alice Huang, then an executive at Megaspeed International, was sharing information with the Chinese government while working with Nvidia to build data centers in Asia.
Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, is not related to the Nvidia CEO, who apologized for the affair Sunday (Nov. 8), according to the report.
“I owe my family and all of you an apology,” Huang wrote, according to a Sunday press release from Nvidia. “…There is no excuse for what I did.”
Nvidia’s board said in a statement Sunday that it has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised, but would “examine all available information.”
The board said in the statement that Jensen Huang has committed to cooperating with the review, and that it “has confidence” the CEO and his team will provide updates as needed.
“Today’s news will not slow Nvidia,” an Nvidia spokesman said, per the WSJ report. “Jensen is committed to continuing to lead Nvidia as CEO without interruption.”
The company has said Jensen Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang were “not unusual or unexpected” considering their business ties, according to the report. The Chinese government has denied reports that it spied on Huang, calling the allegations “groundless speculation.”
The news followed reports from last month that the Department of Justice was examining whether Nvidia’s deal to buy Hugging Face could hinder competition in the artificial intelligence space by giving the company control of a crucial distribution point.
Since then, the Tuesday (Nov. 3) election altered the balance of power in Washington. Democratic control of Congress is expected to bring closer scrutiny of AI, PYMNTS reported Thursday (Nov. 5). Polling showed that 56% of voters considered AI and data centers a crucial or major factor in their congressional vote, with 81% of voters supporting candidates who favored AI safeguards.
For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI newsletter.
