Nvidia said on Sunday it “is initiating an independent investigation in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort”.
Top Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have called on Huang to brief Congress this month about a New York Times report in October alleging he had a close relationship with a Chinese businesswoman who passed information to Beijing.
The company’s board said in a statement on that, while it has no reason to believe that either US national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, its inquiry will examine all available information.
Huang fully supports the review and has committed to cooperating with it, it added.
Axios reported on Sunday, citing a draft email by Huang to employees, that Huang admitted to having a romantic relationship with a suspected Chinese spy and took full responsibility for his actions.
“I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did,” Huang said in the draft email also seen by Reuters.
Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Axios report.
The Times reported on Sunday that a memo drafted by US secretary of state Marco Rubio circulated among top policymakers in the Trump administration last spring, citing intelligence that the businesswoman who had a relationship with Nvidia’s chief executive was a spy for China’s ministry of state security. Despite those concerns, Huang and his wife, Lori Huang, were invited to a state dinner at the White House in September for Xi Jinping, China’s president, and seated at the top table with Donald Trump and Xi.
