President Donald Trump confirmed the inquiry on 9 November 2026, after US officials suspected a Megaspeed executive close to Huang of passing information to China. Nvidia’s board has opened a separate investigation.
Nvidia’s independent directors have hired former acting US attorney Joon H. Kim and his firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, to conduct the company’s investigation into allegations that CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. Kim is to lead the investigation. Nvidia announced the appointment on 10 November, identifying Kim as a former acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The appointment follows the board’s decision on 8 November 2026 to open an independent investigation. A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside lawyers, will oversee that review.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, is separately examining whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. Reuters’ account carried by CNA described that examination on 11 November. The federal inquiry and Nvidia’s internal review are distinct investigations.
President Donald Trump confirmed an FBI inquiry, not a finding of espionage, at his 9 November White House briefing, saying the agency was looking into the matter “in terms of something else.” Trump did not explain its scope or when it began; the FBI declined to comment to the BBC.
Nvidia’s board is preparing to remove Jensen Huang as CEO, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter, according to Reuters coverage carried by CNA. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report, and Nvidia did not immediately respond to its request for comment. Nvidia has said Huang continues to lead the company without interruption. The Guardian reported that Nvidia shares closed up 2.9% at $173.73, narrowing the company’s market-value loss since the preceding Friday to $311 billion. Reuters subsequently reported that the shares fell about 8% in after-hours trading.
The bipartisan bill proposes shorter approval timelines for clean-energy and fossil-fuel projects and other infrastructure, including data centers. The procedural vote opens Senate consideration; it does not pass the bill.
Nvidia has rules discouraging relationships between superiors and employees in subordinate roles, The New York Times reported, according to TechCrunch. TechCrunch said it sought comment from Nvidia on the allegation.
Nvidia’s board was set to hold urgent talks on 11 November about CEO Jensen Huang’s future, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to meet as soon as that day to determine his future, according to Reuters. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report. Neither report established that the meeting had taken place or that Huang had been removed.
The New York Times, citing five anonymous Nvidia sources, reported that Jensen Huang had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company’s vice president of health care, who reported directly to him, according to Tom’s Hardware. The sources also alleged that the pair were filmed being affectionate at a San Jose hotel in March. The Times reported that Huang’s security team isolated the person who filmed them and offered that person a nondisclosure agreement. The newspaper also pointed to Nvidia’s code of conduct, which identifies personal relationships as a potential source of conflicts of interest.
The allegations concern Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a former executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer. She and Jensen Huang are not related. The Verge, citing The New York Times, said US officials suspected her of passing information to China’s government. That remains an intelligence allegation.
CNA reported that The New York Times published an account in October of the alleged relationship and US authorities’ conclusion that Alice Huang was a Chinese intelligence asset.
Jensen Huang acknowledged an affair in an email to employees and pledged to cooperate with Nvidia’s investigation. Trump said Huang told him he did not know of Alice Huang’s alleged intelligence role, and the president said he believed him. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun rejected the targeting allegations as “entirely baseless vilification and smearing.”
Nvidia says it has no reason to believe US national security or company secrets were compromised. The board said its inquiry would examine all available information and expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team. It said it prioritized US national and economic security as paramount to the interests of Nvidia and its shareholders. Huang remains CEO during the review and does not control its participants.
Nvidia also says the US government did not tell it that Megaspeed posed an intelligence concern. The company maintains that suspicions Megaspeed helped divert its chips to China were investigated and debunked. Whether Wachtell can interview Alice Huang remains unclear, as do the nature of any information she allegedly obtained and whether sensitive material reached China’s government and how much Jensen Huang knew about the alleged operation.
Tom’s Hardware, citing an investigation by The Information, reported that Alice Huang allegedly helped move about 240,000 restricted Nvidia chips, mostly H100 and H200 systems, into China. The investigation estimated that Shanghai Century Litong acquired around $7.5 billion in graphics processors through a procurement network, with Huang reportedly helping when orders encountered problems. Its sources linked Shanghai Century Litong and Megaspeed to Huang through personal knowledge and corporate-registration records. Tom’s Hardware also reported that the Chinese embassy denied any links to her.
Jensen Huang had lobbied the Trump administration and Congress to loosen restrictions on advanced semiconductor exports to China. Hanna Dohmen, a senior research analyst at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, cautioned that Nvidia and Huang had a business interest in looser restrictions even without any Chinese intelligence operation.
The New York Times said Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent senior Washington officials a memo in spring 2026 warning that Jensen Huang was in a close relationship with an alleged Chinese spy. It also said Rubio briefed Trump on the intelligence aboard Air Force One during the president’s May trip to China, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
That account conflicts with Trump’s statement at his November 9 briefing that he had not heard about the alleged intelligence ties during the trip. A White House official disputed the Times account and referred Reuters to Trump’s comments.
Huang owns about 3.6% of Nvidia but does not have majority voting control. Shareholders separately filed a proposed class action against Nvidia and Huang on 9 November in federal court in San Jose, California. The complaint alleges they defrauded investors by concealing his ties to Alice Huang and failing to disclose national-security concerns threatening the company’s reputation and business prospects. The shareholders, led by Mark Kistenmacher, seek unspecified damages. The suit was filed five minutes after the US stock market closed, following Nvidia’s announcement of its investigation on 8 November. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
For the 9 November session, CNA reported that Nvidia shares closed down 4.3%, while The Guardian reported a 4.2% closing decline.
After two days of declines, Nvidia shares rose in early trading on 11 November, a different trading stage that did not establish a completed recovery.
| Period | Change or price |
|---|---|
| November 10 closing session | Fell almost 5.5%; closed at $168.89 |
| Since news of the relationship emerged, as reported on 11 November | Fell 9.5% |
| November 11 premarket trading | Rose almost 5% |
| November 11 early trading after the market opened | Rose 2%; not a closing result |
The Guardian put Nvidia’s market-value loss at around $430 billion from before the allegations emerged over the preceding weekend, leaving it worth $4.07 trillion. The BBC had used the preceding Friday as its comparison point, putting the loss at more than $500 billion when shares reached a near-yearly low on 10 November. CNA put the November 9 session’s loss at approximately $190 billion.
How2B said Microsoft overtook Nvidia on 10 November to become the world’s second-most-valuable company. Investment bank Baird also lowered its Nvidia share rating to neutral, Reuters said in an account carried by The Guardian.
Three US House committee chairs, including the Foreign Affairs Committee chair, have requested a closed-door briefing with Huang for 18 November 2026, Fortune said. Their request seeks answers about Nvidia’s defenses against foreign espionage and Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang. A person familiar with the request told the BBC that Huang had not yet confirmed whether he would attend. Committee chair Brian Mast said he would subpoena Huang to compel his appearance if necessary.
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Lawmakers voted 211–204 to send Republican Thomas Massie’s 8 articles against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, averting a potential November 11 impeachment vote.
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