New York (AFP) – AI chip behemoth Nvidia was plunged into turmoil Monday after CEO Jensen Huang acknowledged having an affair, with reports saying US officials believe the woman was spying for China. Beijing denied the claim, but shares of the chipmaker tumbled after Nvidia’s board opened an inquiry into reports that Huang was “the target of a foreign intelligence effort.” Near 1610 GMT, Nvidia shares were down 5.5 percent after losing nearly nine percent earlier in the session.
Late last month, The New York Times reported that US intelligence officials determined that Alice Huang, a Chinese executive linked to Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, had been funneling information to Beijing. The executive, also known as Huang Le and no relation to 63-year-old Taiwanese-born Jensen Huang, developed a close relationship with him, the Times said. “I was unfaithful to my wife,” Huang said in a message to company employees. “My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”
Jensen Huang is a central figure in the AI boom and a close informal adviser to US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly opposed regulating the industry so as not to let China gain the upper hand. The Times said Alice Huang’s relationship with the Nvidia chief could have given her insights into Trump’s thinking around AI. Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular briefing Monday that “the narrative of a so-called Chinese spy is entirely baseless vilification and smearing.” AI is likely to come up when Trump meets President Xi Jinping later this month at a summit in China.
– ‘You never know’ – Asked Sunday whether Huang would join the president’s Asia trip, which includes the Asia-Pacific summit in Shenzhen, Trump told reporters: “I don’t know but I’ll certainly take him.” Trump said Huang was “a fine person, but you never know what’s going on. I’m sure — I hope everything’s fine. He’s done such an incredible job.”
Nvidia’s board said in a statement Sunday it had opened an independent probe “in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.” “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,” it said. China is in a race for tech dominance against 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. Trump said Sunday that he did not regret not acting on this intelligence, calling Huang “an honorable guy.”
– ‘Black eye moment’ – Technology analyst Dan Ives, with the investment bank Yorkville Ives, said the inquiry was “a black eye moment” for Jensen Huang. He predicted it would at the very least spark multiple congressional inquiries and “create an overhang on the stock for a myriad of reasons.” In the near term, Huang is expected to keep his job but risks being removed as Nvidia’s CEO depending on the findings of the inquiry, Ives said.
George Chen, partner and chair of digital practice at The Asia Group, told AFP “it would be premature to conclude that Jensen poses a threat to US national security before the facts are fully established.” “Once you become famous, you will naturally become a target,” Chen said. The House Select Committee on China last week asked Huang to appear in Washington on November 18 for a “closed-door briefing on Nvidia’s security protocols,” according to a letter posted on X that cited reports about Alice Huang.
© 2024 AFP
