Nvidia board opens independent investigation into Jensen Huang after reports he was targeted by Chinese intelligence

NVIDIA's board is opening an independent investigation after reports that founder and chief executive Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, the company said on Sunday. A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, will oversee it. "While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board's inquiry will examine all available information," it said, adding that Huang fully supports the review and that the board has confidence in him.

US intelligence reportedly assessed that China's Ministry of State Security recruited Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, to gather information on Jensen Huang. In a memo to staff on Sunday, Huang disclosed he had been intimate with her, CNBC reports; the board's statement did not mention the affair. Nvidia had said his interactions with her were ordinary customer contacts. The New York Times first reported the intelligence memo, as TechCrunch summarised, and Nvidia previously called the contacts "not unusual".

Three House Republican committee chairs have asked Huang to attend a closed-door briefing on November 18, a day after Nvidia reports third-quarter earnings. Democratic senator Chris Coons said Congress will investigate, and Representative Seth Magaziner called for Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify. Republican senator John Cornyn shared the Times report that the Commerce Department cleared New Matrix, a Chinese firm with little sign of operations, to assemble Nvidia chips. "Today's news will not slow NVIDIA," the company told CNBC.