In September 2025, The New York Times sent Nvidia questions about Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company led by Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had a close relationship with her. According to the Times' reporting, that relationship, and the effort to keep it quiet, ultimately led to the resignation of Nvidia's founder.
How It Began
When the Times' questions arrived, Jensen Huang was reportedly on edge. Employees said his temper could run hot. He wanted to know what the Times was implying. According to people familiar with the discussions, he did not deny knowing the woman, but he was irritated by the suggestion of a close relationship.
Nvidia then began defending itself forcefully. Huang's daughter Madison, who served as his chief of staff, pushed the communications team to respond firmly. The crisis communications firm Heller also got involved. Heller's position was that Huang and the Megaspeed executive had only a business relationship.
For about 13 months, Jensen Huang stuck to that account. He held to it even after the Times reported that U.S. intelligence officials had information suggesting Alice Huang was secretly working with China's top intelligence agency. In an interview with Bloomberg News, he described his contact with her as "completely normal."
What Is Megaspeed, and Why the Suspicion?
Intermediary companies like Megaspeed were multiplying across Southeast Asia. They legally bought U.S. chips, built AI data centers and rented computing power to Chinese companies. The U.S. government, however, suspected that Megaspeed and some similar firms were sending chips to China in violation of the law.
- Within a single year, Megaspeed bought more than $2 billion worth of Nvidia technology.
- According to records from the trade data platform ImportGenius, a Malaysia-based affiliate of Megaspeed bought at least $4.8 billion worth of advanced AI equipment between June 2024 and February 2026, including Nvidia chips and technology.
- In summer 2025, Singapore accounted for 22 percent of Nvidia's quarterly revenue, roughly $10 billion. After the United States, it was Nvidia's second-largest chip-buying region.
- In October 2025, the Times reported that Megaspeed was under investigation over allegations of chip smuggling to China. Nvidia continued doing business with the company.
Nvidia's position was that Megaspeed was a customer like any other in the region, and that it had previously investigated smuggling allegations and found no evidence. China denies espionage allegations. Alice Huang did not respond to requests for comment.
After the reporting, Nvidia also changed how it discloses sales by geography. It had previously reported by "bill-to" location and later switched to "customer headquarters," which removed Singapore from its financial filings. The company had earlier said large customers were billed through Singapore because taxes could be lower, and that products were "almost always shipped elsewhere."
Washington's Surveillance and Trump's Role
According to the Times, President Trump was told about a year earlier that U.S. intelligence agencies were monitoring Alice Huang. They believed she was passing information to Chinese intelligence. The surveillance also reportedly showed her close relationship with Jensen Huang, which U.S. intelligence and national security officials described bluntly as a romantic relationship.
Trump took no action on the information, but doubts about Huang's judgment spread inside the government. Another worry emerged: that Alice Huang might have learned about Trump's AI-related thinking from Jensen Huang. Why officials did not warn Huang remains unknown. Such warnings are called "defensive briefings." When deciding whether to give one, officials typically weigh whether it could tip off the person under surveillance, who in this case would have been Alice Huang.
The Push to Sell Chips to China
In September 2025, Huang joined Trump at a state banquet hosted by King Charles III in the United Kingdom. Trump told him, "Jensen, you're taking over the whole world." At the time, Nvidia's share price was climbing fast and the company was close to a $5 trillion valuation.
Later that month, on his way to South Korea to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Trump said he planned to discuss Nvidia's most advanced chip, Blackwell. Some officials read this as a sign he might lift restrictions on selling top U.S. technology to China. But officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer objected on national security grounds, and Trump backed away.
Huang did not give up. In December, he met Trump at the White House and proposed selling a lower-capability chip, the H200, to China. It is one generation older than Blackwell. Trump said he might agree, on condition that the U.S. government receive 25 percent of the value of every chip sold in China. Huang accepted. By March, advance purchase commitments from Chinese customers were coming in.
Rubio's Classified Memo and Air Force One
Rubio commissioned a new classified memo on the surveillance of Alice Huang. It described her close relationship with Jensen Huang and her contacts with China's Ministry of State Security. The memo went to only a few Cabinet members.
In May 2026, the administration was preparing Trump's trip to Beijing. Huang's name was not on the list of CEOs invited. After seeing news of the omission, Trump abruptly asked him to join Air Force One during a refueling stop in Alaska. On the way, Rubio briefed the president on the intelligence, but Trump did not give it much weight. After Huang boarded, Trump posted on social media that it was an honor to have "the great Jensen Huang" with him on the China trip.
In Beijing, Trump said he discussed selling Nvidia chips with Xi. But the Chinese government was reportedly unwilling to approve purchases of the H200, and it did not appear to have agreed even after the talks. Some Washington officials worried that Huang would seek approval to sell the more advanced Blackwell chip to break the deadlock.
At an all-hands meeting in August, asked what he saw as Nvidia's biggest risk, Huang answered, "Washington, D.C." In his words, policy made without understanding can hurt the business, and it is annoying and frustrating. When his phone rang mid-meeting, he said only two people in the world can call him, and one of them is President Trump.
The Secret Comes Out
In late October 2026, the Times asked Nvidia for comment on a report that would, for the first time, reveal that Alice Huang had been under surveillance. U.S. officials believed she was working for Chinese intelligence and had a close relationship with Jensen Huang. Huang told people close to him that he was learning for the first time that the U.S. government had been watching his relationship with her.
On November 6, the Times reported on Rubio's memo. That night, the Financial Times reported that the U.S. government viewed the relationship as romantic. Nvidia declined to comment.
Nvidia general counsel Tim Teter then went to Huang's home in Woodside, California. According to people familiar with that night, Huang admitted to the relationship. His daughter Madison was in South Korea for an event at the time; soon after arriving, she was told the news and asked to return home.
Several of Huang's family members hold key roles at Nvidia, including Madison, his son Spencer and son-in-law Nico Caprez. Huang has been married to Lori Huang for more than 40 years. In a message to employees, he apologized, saying he had not been faithful to his wife, that his actions had hurt her and their children, and that there was no excuse.
The board planned to hire an outside law firm to investigate and said it had full confidence in Jensen. Over the next few days, figures such as Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Larry Fink offered him encouragement. President Trump also called, reportedly telling him to keep fighting. Huang told several associates that Alice Huang was not a spy, only a business customer.
A Second Relationship and the Resignation
Four days later, on Wednesday, the Times called Huang about another extramarital relationship, this time with an executive who reported directly to him at Nvidia. According to the report, she is Kimberly Powell, 48, who heads Nvidia's health care division. Huang said on the phone that he did not think he should talk to the reporter directly, then hung up. The company declined to comment.
After the news broke, ten board members convened an emergency meeting to discuss whether Huang should remain at the company. It was hard to imagine Nvidia without him. But Huang had praised the company's code of conduct on workplace relationships, then broken it himself: first with a customer, then with an employee. And lying during a crisis is widely regarded as a chief executive's biggest mistake.
On Thursday morning, Nvidia announced that Huang had resigned, less than 24 hours after the board met. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress became interim CEO. Only weeks earlier, Huang had told Bloomberg TV that the job carries enormous pressure and sacrifice and should not be easy. He had said he hoped to stay at the company for another 20 years.
The Fallout: From Silicon Valley to Beijing
The revelations about Huang, 63, are rippling through Silicon Valley, Washington and Beijing. Administration officials are now reconsidering rules on AI technology exports. That could hurt some Silicon Valley companies, but it could also strengthen the U.S. advantage in the AI race with China.
The episode has also exposed a dispute between senior administration officials and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. On Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that his department had been pressing the Commerce Department for months to stop U.S. technology from reaching China.
Nvidia was driving the rise of AI, and AI was driving the U.S. economy. Now the company is operating without a leader many consider one of the most indispensable executives in American business history.
Note: The intelligence-related claims in this report come from U.S. government officials and sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. China denies the espionage allegations, and Alice Huang did not comment.
Sources: The New York Times (a year-long investigation drawing on documents and more than 100 interviews), Bloomberg News, Financial Times, CNBC.