Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's close ties to the U.S. government were already poised to loosen with Democrats winning control of Congress and promising far more oversight of AI development than what the chip giant has experienced under Republican leadership.
That was before Huang admitted on Sunday to having an extramarital affair with a businesswoman who intelligence agencies say is a Chinese spy. The woman, Alice Huang, is affiliated with an Nvidia customer called Megaspeed that's been accused of helping restricted Chinese companies acquire Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips.
Huang apologized to staffers in a note on Sunday for being "unfaithful to my wife," and said the company's board was investigating any related national security concerns. Nvidia's board said it has "confidence in Jensen," who co-founded the company in 1993 and has led it ever since, building a net worth of more than $150 billion in the process.
Even before last week's midterm elections, which saw Democrats win sweeping majorities in the House and Senate, vocal party leaders wanted answers from Huang about China's access to advanced Nvidia chips and his company's lobbying for favorable legislation. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said days before the election, when the spy story was first surfacing, that "we must pass bipartisan legislation to keep our advanced AI technology out of China's hands." Months before that, in June, Huang declined an invitation from Warren to testify before the Senate Banking Committee.
With Democrats about to take the gavel, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, who is in line to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote on X on Saturday that "Congress will investigate and get answers," following the allegations that appeared in a New York Times report Friday.