United States-based chipmaker Nvidia is investigating its chief executive officer, billionaire Jensen Huang, after he confirmed he had an intimate relationship with a woman accused of working for Chinese intelligence.<\/p>\n
In an announcement on Sunday, Nvidia said the probe would be conducted by a \u201ccommittee of independent directors\u201d with outside counsel.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhile the board has no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, the board\u2019s inquiry will examine all available information,\u201d Nvidia\u2019s board of directors said.<\/p>\n
It said the board continued to have \u201cconfidence in Jensen and his leadership team\u201d. Huang will continue to lead Nvidia during the probe.<\/p>\n
The investigation follows a report in The New York Times last month that Jensen may have been the target of a Chinese espionage plot.<\/p>\n
China and the US have been in competition to dominate key tech sectors like artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n
Amid the AI boom, Nvidia has seen demand for its chips and programming interfaces explode, resulting in the company being valued in the trillions of dollars.<\/p>\n
For years, the US has sought to restrict the export of advanced chips to China, fearing the Asian superpower could gain an edge over its technology and military sectors.<\/p>\n
But on October 29, The New York Times said it had obtained exclusive information that a Chinese woman named Alice Huang, or Huang Le, sought to cultivate close ties with Jensen Huang in an effort to glean information about Nvidia\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, has denied any allegations of spying in the case.<\/p>\n
The New York Times also reported that Alice Huang\u2019s employer, Megaspeed, had become one of Nvidia\u2019s largest buyers, purchasing some $4.8bn in equipment from the US firm.<\/p>\n
Jensen Huang\u2019s ties to Alice Huang, who is of no relation, spurred fierce bipartisan backlash in the US Congress in the aftermath of the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor months, bipartisan members of Congress have raised concerns about NVIDIA\u2019s advanced AI chips going to China,\u201d Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cNVIDIA\u2019s Jensen Huang and NVIDIA\u2019s board owe Congress answers. And we need to pass bipartisan legislation we have ready to stop advanced American technology from going to China.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives also called on Huang to appear and testify before Congress about the affair on November 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk,\u201d Republicans John Moolenaar, Brian Mast and Rick Crawford said in a statement.<\/p>\n
In an email to Nvidia staff on Sunday, Huang had admitted to having an extramarital relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse \u200cfor what I did,\u201d Huang said.<\/p>\n
Nvidia has grown rapidly in recent years with the rise of AI, producing chips for large language models developed by companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google.<\/p>\n