Extramarital affairs are usually private matters. Jensen Huang’s has global implications. The 63-year-old is the leading face of the artificial intelligence revolution with his black leather jackets and fluff of grey hair. He runs the company Nvidia, which produces highly coveted computer chips. That’s landed him on a late-night-phone-call basis with President Donald Trump, a promoter of the industry.
But Huang was also liaising with a Chinese businesswoman who has allegedly fed intelligence — as well as advanced chips-- to China. The woman, Alice Huang, is a former executive at the Singapore-based cloud computing company Megaspeed.
Saga of personal betrayal
It's a saga of personal betrayal, corporate espionage and high-tech development, and the fallout is spreading across Washington. There are bipartisan calls for investigations on Capitol Hill. The US Department of Justice has opened its own probe. Nvidia, one of the most valuable companies in the world, is conducting an internal review.
Some expect the technology to reshape human civilization by imbuing computers with the vast powers of creation and analysis, and Trump has repeated that "whoever wins AI, wins." Nvidia is the backbone of America’s plans for dominating the field.
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When asked about Huang’s affair, Trump said this week that he had spoken to the tech executive as the scandal grew. "I think he’ll be in good shape," Trump said, adding that "he said he had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy."
As for when the president first learned about the concerns involving Alice Huang, Trump brushed off the question. "They could have been mentioned," he said. "Certainly it didn’t make much of an impact on me."
Authorities are investigating Megaspeed and Alice Huang
With the AI race between the US and China often framed as a fierce and consequential rivalry, the Justice Department has persistently warned of the espionage threat posed by Beijing. That includes efforts to cultivate well-placed relationships in government and private industry, as well as to acquire sensitive technology such as AI chips developed in the US.
Last year, Megaspeed faced scrutiny from the U.S. Commerce Department over its alleged skirting of U.S. export laws and routing of a large amount of advanced Nvidia chips to Chinese users. The company denied those allegations. US intelligence officials eventually concluded that Alice Huang had spied for China, according to The New York Times.
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The Commerce Department’s probe was handed off to the Justice Department, and its National Security Division is investigating whether Megaspeed violated export control laws in an inquiry that will also include scrutiny of Alice Huang, according to a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing law enforcement probe.
Jensen Huang has apologized to his company about the affair, saying he hurt his wife and their children, but he didn't address reports that Alice Huang was a suspected spy. Nvidia’s board said that it had "no reason to believe” that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, and that Huang would remain in charge while cooperating with the investigation.
Beijing has said the "Chinese spy allegation is unsubstantiated" and called it "nothing but smears."
(With inputs from PTI)
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