Nvidia opens investigation after report CEO Jensen Huang was target of foreign intelligence

Nvidia opens investigation after report CEO Jensen Huang was target of foreign intelligence CEO reportedly ‌had close relationship ‌with a Chinese businesswoman who passed information to ‌Beijing

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”.

The New York Times reported in ​October that Donald Trump had been briefed last year on intelligence that Huang ‌had a close relationship ‌with a Chinese businesswoman who passed information to ‌Beijing.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump downplayed the revelations about Huang, who is an influential adviser to the president on artificial intelligence, saying: “I think he’s an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it.”

Trump also brushed off a question about whether he now regrets not acting on the intelligence when he was briefed on it, and suggested that he would be happy to take Huang with him on a trip to Asia next week. “I haven’t heard he’s done anything wrong,” Trump said. “He dealt with somebody. But, you know, so does everybody else.”

Republican lawmakers have expressed more alarm, asking Huang to give the House foreign affairs and intelligence committees a closed-door briefing next week on Nvidia’s “security protocols against foreign adversary espionage” and his relationship with Alice Huang or Huang Le, an executive at a Singapore-based datacenter company called Megaspeed, who is of no relation to the Nvidia CEO. She had previously been suspected of smuggling Nvidia chips to China, prompting American officials to surveil and monitor her.

Those officials have determined that she was acting as a Chinese intelligence asset, passing commercial information to Beijing, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources.

The company’s board said in a statement on Sunday 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.

“The Board prioritizes US national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders,” the company said. “The Board has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team and will provide further updates as appropriate.”

Huang fully ‌supports the review and has committed to cooperating with it, it added.