Nvidia shares fell more than 5% after CEO Jensen Huang admitted to cheating on his wife of 40 years in an affair linked to national security concerns. The revelation comes as US officials investigate whether Huang’s romantic partner, Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, is a Chinese spy feeding information to Beijing.
Alice Huang is a Chinese citizen with no relation to Jensen Huang. Megaspeed, a Singapore-based AI infrastructure firm, has purchased $4.8 billion in Nvidia chips over the last two years. Both the United States and Singapore have previously investigated the company over suspicions of illegally sharing chips with China.
The United States and China are locked in a fierce competition to build advanced AI infrastructure. Nvidia plays a central role here as a major manufacturer of the chips required to accelerate AI development. However, as an American company, Nvidia faces government restrictions on selling its most powerful hardware to Chinese entities.
The following timeline organises the most relevant events in reverse chronological order.
Huang cancels speaking engagements
On November 9, 2026, the Nvidia CEO withdrew from upcoming appearances at the ElevenLabs Summit and the Anthropic CEO Forum.
Business details emerge regarding the alleged spy
Between November 9 and 10, 2026, reports detailed the business relationships between Nvidia and Alice Huang. Her family reportedly established a network of companies in China and Singapore to acquire Nvidia chips. This included founding a Chinese entity called Shanghai Century Litong in 2023.
The Information reported that Shanghai Century Litong became a preferred cloud partner for Nvidia, granting it priority access to chips. The firm facilitated the purchase of $7.5 billion worth of Nvidia hardware, including models subject to export bans.
Tim Teter, head of Nvidia’s legal department, intervened in a 2025 US government probe into suspected chip smuggling by Megaspeed International. Bloomberg reported that Teter contacted Commerce Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler to ask whether the Trump administration played a role in detaining Alice Huang.
In early 2025, Alice Huang and a business partner sought Chinese investors for an Asian data center. The Financial Times reported they promised no difficulty securing GPUs.
Trump expresses support for the CEO
On November 8, 2026, President Trump weighed in on the controversy. He stated he had not spoken to Huang about the matter but knew he was a fine person.
“I just know he’s a fine person, but you never know what’s going on,” Trump said.
When asked if Huang should remain chief of Nvidia, the President replied, “I think so. Oh yeah, sure.”
Huang admits infidelity; board launches investigation
Also on November 8, 2026, Jensen Huang sent a letter to Nvidia employees which was published as a press release. He admitted to cheating on his wife.
“I owe my family and all of you an apology,” Huang wrote. “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”
The message did not name Alice Huang but linked the infidelity to “the national security concerns raised in news reports.”
Huang stated that Nvidia’s Board of Directors had initiated an independent investigation. He added, “I support the investigation and will cooperate fully. I love our country and our company. I am committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America’s national security. I am proud and grateful to be an American.”
Republican chairmen request briefing
On November 5, 2026, three Republican congressmen requested a closed-door joint briefing with Huang. The group included John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House Select Committee on China; Brian Mast, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; and Rick Crawford, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The chairmen wrote that recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People’s Republic of China’s access to sensitive US technology. They stated that the issue of PRC infiltration is core to their investigative work and that it is vital for Congress to determine the extent of the risk to national security.
Public revelation of relationship
On October 29, 2026, US officials had been investigating Alice Huang and Megaspeed for more than a year. The New York Times broke the story in late October that the two executives also had a close relationship.
A Nvidia spokesperson denied the relationship was unusual. John Rizzo said, “Jensen’s interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year.”
Rizzo added, “if the U.S. government believes that any person is a threat to American industry, it would let us know.”
Secret memo warns of spy link
During Spring 2026, US officials circulated a secret memo among policymakers. The document warned that Megaspeed’s Alice Huang, who had a relationship with Jensen Huang, was a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security. The New York Times later reported the memo’s existence.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio supervised the drafting of the memo.
Trump briefed but takes no action
In late 2025, President Donald Trump was briefed on intelligence findings that the possible Chinese spy Alice Huang had formed a close relationship with Jensen Huang. The New York Times reported Trump did not act on this information.
The Nvidia CEO, an ally of Trump, has repeatedly advocated for the US government to allow Nvidia to expand its business in China.
Investigations into Megaspeed begin
In October 2025, both the US and Singaporean governments confirmed investigations into Megaspeed. As a customer of Nvidia, the firm was suspected of helping Chinese companies bypass American embargoes on chip exports.
The Times reported Megaspeed, a neocloud using Nvidia chips, rented computing power to Chinese internet giant Alibaba and other Chinese companies. A Commerce Department official visiting Megaspeed’s data center in Malaysia in 2024 found a hoard of Nvidia equipment still packed in boxes. The concern was that the equipment was being directly shipped to China rather than installed and sold as a cloud service.
Jensen Huang had been spotted socialising with Megaspeed executive Alice Huang as early as 2024 in Taiwan, where the Nvidia CEO was born.
These investigations highlighted concerns about Nvidia’s ability to track chip exports. At the time, a spokesperson told press the company did not have “any reason to believe products had been diverted.”
“NVIDIA visited multiple Megaspeed sites yet again earlier this week and confirmed what we previously observed — Megaspeed is running a small commercial cloud, like many other companies throughout the world, as allowed by U.S. export control rules,” the spokesperson said.
