New York (AFP) – Chip giant Nvidia’s board announced Sunday it opened a probe into Chief Executive and co-founder Jensen Huang after he acknowledged an affair with a woman US officials say was working for Chinese intelligence. Late last month, The New York Times reported that US intelligence officials concluded that the woman, a Chinese executive linked to a Singapore-based data center company called Megaspeed, had been funnelling information to Beijing.
The executive, Alice Huang — also known as Huang Le, and no relation to 63-year-old Taiwanese-born Jensen Huang — developed a close relationship with the Nvidia boss, the Times said. In a message to company employees released Sunday, Huang acknowledged having an affair and apologized to both his family and company staff. “I was unfaithful to my wife,” he said. “My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”
Asked about the report Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he couldn’t comment, saying it was an “internal corporate matter.” Jensen Huang is a key figure in the artificial intelligence revolution and close to President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly spoken out against regulating the industry so as not to let China gain the upper hand in the AI race. The Times said Huang’s relationship with the other Huang could have given her insights into Trump’s thinking around AI.
The issue of AI is likely to arise during Trump’s planned talks with President Xi Jinping later this month at a summit in China. Nvidia said in a statement it opened an independent probe “in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.” It did not name a country. The statement added: “While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information.”
The Chinese government has dismissed the Times report as “groundless speculation.” China is in a race for tech dominance with the United States, which restricts the export to China of the most cutting-edge silicon chips. Nvidia, a global leader in producing chips used to train and run AI models, is one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Megaspeed was under scrutiny for possibly steering Nvidia AI chips to China, the Times report said, citing unnamed sources briefed on the matter. Trump was briefed on the intelligence findings about Huang’s relationship with the businesswoman roughly a year ago and chose not to act on the information, the Times report said. elm/dw/mjf
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