Startups & Technology

Jensen Huang scandal: allegations, Nvidia exit and investigations

Jensen Huang scandal: allegations, Nvidia exit and investigations

The controversy centers on Megaspeed, a Singapore-based AI infrastructure company that reportedly bought $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over two years. U.S. and Singaporean authorities have investigated whether it helped move chips to China in violation of export restrictions. Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen with no relation to Jensen Huang, is suspected by U.S. officials of passing information to Beijing; the allegations have not been established publicly as fact.

On November 8, 2026, Huang told Nvidia employees he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologized to his family and colleagues. He also linked his conduct to national security concerns raised in news reports. Nvidia’s board opened an independent investigation. The New York Times later reported that Huang had a relationship with company vice president of healthcare Kimberly Powell, who reports directly to him. Reuters subsequently reported another alleged affair with an unnamed Nvidia employee. Nvidia, Huang and Powell did not confirm the Times report.

Nvidia said its board accepted Huang’s resignation on November 11. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress became interim CEO, while Harvey C. Jones, a director since 1993 and former Synopsys CEO, was named the company’s first chair of the board. Huang agreed to testify before Congress before Thanksgiving, which falls on November 26. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast said Huang had “some very serious questions to answer”; the testimony is expected to be behind closed doors, with a recording and transcript, Mast said.

The political scrutiny has widened. On November 12, Representative Richard Neal and Senator Ron Wyden said they would investigate the Trump administration’s handling of Nvidia chip sales to China. Their letter said President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were reportedly briefed on intelligence about Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, but that Trump later authorized Nvidia to sell H200 chips to China in December 2025 in exchange for a share of export sales. Senator Tim Scott separately requested that Huang and Lutnick testify before the Senate Banking Committee.

Earlier reporting traced the scrutiny to Megaspeed’s business network. The Information reported that Alice Huang’s family helped build companies in China and Singapore, including Shanghai Century Litong, founded in 2023 and made an Nvidia-preferred cloud partner. It said the company facilitated purchases of $7.5 billion in Nvidia chips, including restricted products. In October 2025, U.S. and Singaporean investigations focused on suspected diversion of chips; Nvidia said at the time it had no reason to believe its products had been diverted and that Megaspeed was operating a small commercial cloud in line with U.S. export rules.

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