Nvidia’s board preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang, sources say

(CBS) — Nvidia’s board of directors is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang soon, according to two sources familiar with the matter, following allegations that Huang had an extramarital affair with a woman U.S. intelligence agencies believe was a Chinese asset.

The Trump administration is aware of the matter, the sources said.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the board’s moves.

Nvidia’s share price slid more than 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the Journal’s report, extending a multi-day sell-off for one of the world’s most valuable publicly traded companies.

The company has faced days of turmoil following reports that American intelligence agencies believed Huang was the target of a Chinese spying plot.

Nvidia was co-founded by Huang in 1993, and for years it was best known for designing graphics cards widely used for gaming. The company now designs the powerful semiconductors that fuel many of the world’s leading AI firms, making its technology highly sensitive and subject to export controls limiting sales to China.

The New York Times reported last week on allegations that Huang had a close relationship with Alice Huang, who previously led a Singapore-based firm called Megaspeed International that bought billions of dollars worth of Nvidia chips and hardware. U.S. intelligence agencies have believed for months that Alice Huang — who is not related to Jensen Huang — was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security, the newspaper reported.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday night that Alice Huang had returned to China, her home country, citing people familiar with the matter. She is living in Beijing with the knowledge of Chinese security officials, one of the people told Bloomberg, which said it wasn’t immediately clear when or why she went there.

Asked Thursday about the report that Alice Huang had returned, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters: “I do not have information on what you mentioned.”

In a message to Nvidia employees over the weekend, Jensen Huang wrote that he was “unfaithful to my wife” and apologized for hurting her and their children. He did not name the woman involved.

Nvidia’s board said Sunday it had launched an independent investigation into allegations that the CEO “has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.” The board said it had no reason to believe the company’s secrets or national security were compromised. Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo said, “We trust that if we were the target of a genuine threat, the U.S. government would have notified us.”

Two law enforcement sources told CBS News the Justice Department is also investigating Megaspeed over potential violations of U.S. export restrictions on advanced AI chips. Some analysts have raised questions about whether the saga resulted in China — which is racing the U.S. for AI dominance — gaining access to Nvidia’s technology through Megaspeed.

The company has denied any involvement in illegal chip transfers but said in a statement Thursday that it “retained a leading U.S. law firm to … independently verify its export control compliance practices. Megaspeed welcomes appropriate government scrutiny and is committed to demonstrating through concrete actions that it operates responsibly, transparently, and in accordance with applicable U.S. laws.”

China has denied all allegations, with Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun telling reporters on Monday that the “so-called Chinese spy narrative is entirely baseless and constitutes slander and smear.”

Beyond the national security concerns, Nvidia is facing a securities lawsuit accusing the company of failing to disclose information to shareholders about Jensen Huang’s relationship with the alleged spy.

Jensen Huang has a close relationship with the Trump administration. President Trump gave Nvidia permission to sell its advanced H200 computer chips to “approved customers” in China late last year, with the federal government taking a 25% cut of chip sales. The deal did not include Nvidia’s more advanced Blackwell or Rubin systems.

The Nvidia CEO and other U.S. tech executives traveled to China with Mr. Trump earlier this year.

On Monday, Mr. Trump called Jensen Huang a “very high-quality person,” saying during a White House briefing that “the FBI is looking into it in terms of something else, and I think that he’ll be in good shape.” The president said he spoke to Jensen Huang to see how he was doing, and the executive “said he had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy.”