NVIDIA’s board is opening an independent investigation after “recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort,” the board says. A committee of independent directors will oversee it, with help from outside independent counsel.
NVIDIA also published the email Huang sent to employees the same day. “I was unfaithful to my wife,” he writes. “My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did.”
Huang says he takes full responsibility, that he has “fallen short” of his responsibility to employees, the board, partners and shareholders, and that he is “fully committed to NVIDIA.” The email doesn’t name the woman, but The New York Times reports Huang acknowledged he was intimate with a business executive US officials had determined was working for Chinese intelligence. On the investigation, he writes that he supports it and “will cooperate fully,” and he asks for privacy for his family.
The board says it has no reason to believe that national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, though its inquiry “will examine all available information.” It also says Huang fully supports the review, and that it has confidence in him and his leadership team.
NVIDIA says Huang stays on as CEO. “Jensen is committed to continuing to lead NVIDIA as CEO without interruption,” the company says in a statement to CNBC.
In an October 29th story, The New York Times reports that US intelligence officials believe Alice Huang, an executive linked to Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, was passing information to Beijing. The Times says she developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang.
China’s foreign ministry says the report is “unsubstantiated” and “nothing but smears against China.” Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs says there were no investigations into Alice Huang, answering a Wall Street Journal report that officials there had looked into her ties to China. In a reply the ministry published, the Singapore Police Force says its investigations into Megaspeed are ongoing.
The board opened the inquiry and declared its confidence in Huang in the same six-sentence statement linked above. It also says it will give further updates as appropriate. NVIDIA’s third-quarter earnings call is set for November 17th.
