Nvidia hires top US law firm to investigate affair between CEO Huang and Chinese spy
Nvidia on Tuesday said it hired a prominent US law firm to investigate allegations surrounding a relationship between its chief executive Jensen Huang and a woman accused of spying for China, as the matter draws scrutiny from US lawmakers and the FBI.The company said that New York-based Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (WLRK) would lead the inquiry, with attorney Joon Kim overseeing what it described as a “thorough and independent investigation”, BBC reported.The FBI is conducting a separate probe.Huang, who co-founded Nvidia, has acknowledged having a romantic relationship outside his marriage.
The woman, Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, is alleged to be a Chinese spy. She is not related to the Nvidia chief.The company's shares have fallen close to a one-year low, wiping about $500 billion (£375 billion) off its market value since Friday.Nvidia is a major player in the artificial intelligence (AI) boom and the world's second most valuable company after Apple. Its chips are central to the development of AI tools and have become a national security concern for US officials seeking to maintain an edge over China in the technology race.Alice Huang was an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, a company that has been a customer of Nvidia.
Megaspeed had faced suspicions of helping divert Nvidia chips to China, but Nvidia has said it investigated the concern and found the allegations to be unfounded.The company has also maintained that the US government did not tell it that Megaspeed was an intelligence concern.According to the New York Times, US secretary of state Marco Rubio sent a memo to senior officials in Washington earlier this year warning that Jensen Huang was in a close relationship with a Chinese spy.Meanwhile, China has rejected the allegations.
Its foreign ministry said the claims were “intended to smear and malign China”.US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he had spoken to Huang, who told him he had “no idea she was a spy”. Trump said he believed the Nvidia chief.The matter has also reached Capitol Hill. Congressional leaders of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs have asked Huang to attend a closed-door briefing next week, a person familiar with the request told the BBC.Huang has not yet indicated whether he will appear.
The committee has the power to subpoena him if it decides his attendance is necessary.When Nvidia's board announced the investigation on Sunday, it said there was no reason to believe the company's trade secrets or national security had been compromised. It added that a committee of independent directors would oversee the inquiry.It remains unclear whether Wachtell will be able to interview Alice Huang, BBC reported.Wachtell is among the largest law firms in the US and counts technology companies, including OpenAI and Salesforce, among its clients.
Kim, who will lead the investigation, is a former US attorney for the Southern District of New York and has worked as a government lawyer on fraud and other criminal cases.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
