US Congress summons Huang
US lawmakers have called Jensen Huang, an architect of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, to face their questions in December after the Nvidia ex-CEO quit over extramarital affairs, including one with a suspected Chinese spy.
The scandal has wiped almost half a trillion dollars off Nvidia’s market valuation, as it raises national security fears and leaves the AI industry in uncharted waters.
“Recent reports raise serious concerns about our national security and the protection of sensitive US technology,” Republican Sen. Tim Scott wrote Thursday on X.
Huang, who has been married to his wife Lori for over 40 years, admitted on Sunday to an affair, reportedly with Alice Huang, a former senior executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed. The two are not related.
US intelligence reportedly circulated a memo this spring alleging she was an asset of China’s Ministry of State Security. Beijing has rejected the allegations.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported a second affair, citing video of Huang being affectionate with Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare, Kimberly Powell.
Nvidia hit gold when the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022 sparked a global rush to develop AI, with its processors—once designed for video game graphics—becoming a crucial ingredient to train and run the technology.
Huang is Nvidia’s largest individual shareholder, with a stake of about 3.6 percent, according to the company.
The Taiwanese-born businessman was a close informal adviser to President Donald Trump on AI, and had spent years lobbying against curbs on sales of advanced AI chips to China for national security reasons.
Singapore said on Thursday it had barred Alice Huang, a Chinese national, from reentering the country in February for giving investigators inaccurate information about her role at Megaspeed, though she was not investigated for espionage.
Spy allegations
At the heart of the spy allegations is the race between the United States and China for supremacy in an industry widely seen as the next industrial revolution.
Key US lawmakers, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, called on Thursday for answers on what the Trump administration knew about Huang’s ties to a suspected Chinese spy, days before Trump travels to China for a summit.
“Despite Jensen Huang’s resignation, Congress must demand answers from Mr. Huang and others at Nvidia about how they may have put US national security at risk,” Schumer said on social media.
“The Trump administration must also answer for what it did once it learned about Mr. Huang’s relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset,” he added.
Reports allege the Commerce Department under Secretary Howard Lutnick may have failed to act on suspicions that Megaspeed was helping reroute restricted Nvidia technology to China.
Singapore’s home ministry said it had repeatedly sought information from the US justice department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a US server supplier during its Megaspeed probe, but “received limited information or assistance.”
On Thursday, Malaysia also said on Friday it was investigating a subsidiary of Megaspeed International over the possible diversion of advanced AI chips to other countries.
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