Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang steps down after spy scandal

Jensen Huang resigned as president, chief executive officer, and board member of Nvidia on Thursday. His departure took effect immediately following a board meeting held on Wednesday to discuss his potential removal. The move comes after reports revealed Huang had a romantic relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman whom US authorities suspect of working as a spy for Beijing.

The company’s sudden leadership vacuum creates uncertainty for a firm valued at $4 trillion. Huang had built the company’s current artificial intelligence ecosystem by reinvesting substantial cash reserves into cloud providers, suppliers, and major research labs. Investors are now concerned about how this disruption will affect the AI sector, which is already under pressure from rising debt and doubts about return on investment.

The scandal also complicates US chip export policies. Huang had long advocated for maintaining access to the Chinese market. He maintained close ties with President Donald Trump. On Sunday, Trump said Huang had done an amazing job for the country. The President added that Huang told him he was unaware his partner was a suspected spy.

Questions remain about the background of Alice Huang, the woman at the center of the controversy. The Chinese government denied she was a spy, calling the allegations unsubstantiated. According to a private equity database and a social media post by Shanghai Hexi Investment Management, she began her career as a journalist at state broadcasters Hunan TV and CCTV before moving into finance. However, there is currently no public record of her working at either broadcaster.

Bai Jie, a former news anchor in China with over 2 million followers on Weibo, claimed on Monday that she had known Alice Huang when they were both journalists. Bai described her as formidable at the time. She deleted the post hours later and denied making the statement before her account was banned shortly afterward. Alice Huang served as deputy general manager at Shanghai Hexi during the 2010s. She was also listed as a legal representative for the tech firm Shanghai Longteng.

Reporters from The Washington Post called the publicly listed phone numbers for Shanghai Longteng. They were informed they had dialed the wrong number. In 2023, Alice Huang joined Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based subsidiary of a Chinese gaming company. The firm later spun off from its parent organization and pivoted to providing computing power using data centers powered by Nvidia chips. It became one of the largest buyers of Nvidia hardware in Southeast Asia.

Megaspeed’s assets grew from $33 million in 2023 to $3 billion in 2024. This rapid expansion fueled suspicions that the company was routing Nvidia chips to China in violation of US export controls. The Washington Post cited US intelligence reports stating that Huang was recruited by the Ministry of State Security, Beijing’s primary spy agency. The timing of her recruitment and the start of her relationship with Jensen Huang remain unclear.

Bloomberg reported that the suspected spy has returned to Beijing. The specific date and reason for her travel to the capital are still unknown. The board of directors has not yet announced a successor. The company’s stock price reflected the uncertainty as traders assessed the impact of the leadership change on future earnings.