Jensen Huang's affair with alleged Chinese spy further complicates Nvidia’s China problem

Following Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's admission on Sunday to an extramarital affair with alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang, the chipmaker's relationship to China is about to come under intense scrutiny in Washington, D.C.

Since October 2022, when the Biden administration announced sweeping controls to limit China's ability to obtain advanced U.S. chips, Nvidia has seen its business diminish in the world's second-largest economy. Months after an even stricter set of rules was implemented by the Trump administration, Huang said in October 2025, "We are 100% out of China."

The recent allegations against Huang, while throwing the chipmaker into crisis, have also brought attention to the Nvidia CEO's potential influence over U.S. policy on chip sales to China, where its business once flourished. Of particular interest is whether restricted Nvidia chips have reached Chinese companies through customers like Singapore-based Megaspeed , the company linked to Alice Huang.

The New York Times first reported that the Chinese businesswoman was a spy for China's Ministry of State Security, according to people briefed on the intelligence circulated in a memo among the Trump administration in the spring. China has called the allegation a smear.

Jensen Huang has been closely aligned with President Donald Trump during his second administration, helping advise the White House on AI safety regulations, while also pushing for looser restrictions on selling AI chips to China. In December, Trump said Nvidia would be allowed to ship its H200 chips to China, provided the U.S. got a 25% cut of sales. In March, Huang told reporters that Nvidia had "received purchase orders, and we're in the process of restarting our manufacturing ."

Huang was a last-minute addition to the roster of tech executives who joined Trump on a trip to China in May, after the White House briefed the president on intelligence concerns, according to the New York Times .

"In 35 years, I haven't seen a chip CEO with this much direct influence on export policy," said Patrick Moorhead, CEO at Moor Insights & Strategy, in an email.

Since last week's midterm elections that included sweeping victories across the country for Democrats, the mood in Washington has changed. Following this weekend's revelations about Huang's affair, three House committees have requested closed-door briefings with the Nvidia CEO about his relationship with Megaspeed.

Democratic lawmakers, who are about to take power in the House and Senate, have said publicly that Congress will investigate and seek answers. Trump said on Monday he was "amazed" by the allegations and that Huang told him he "had no idea that she was a spy." The FBI is now looking into the issue, Trump said at a White House briefing.