Nvidia leader investigated by relation to suspected data transmission

A uS technology company Nvidia announced that it will open an investigation into indications that the executive president, Jensen Huang, was “targeted by an operation of foreign intelligence,” the board of directors revealed today.

The announcement was made after Huang recognized before the company's board of directors, the main manufacturer of chips used in artificial intelligence systems, which maintained an intimate relationship with an entrepreneur who, according to US intelligence services, would be gathering information for Beijing, reported The New York Times.

Huang apologized in a press release addressed to the company: “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There's no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry”, he wrote, according to the newspaper.

In a statement, Nvidia’s board of directors stated that it did not have “reason to believe that national security or company secrets have been compromised”, but it said that the investigation would examine all available information.

Jensen Huang “supports the analysis fully and has committed itself to cooperating with the investigation,” the board added.

The 63-year-old businessman will remain as executive president during the investigation.

The New York Times reported last month that U.S. intelligence services had discovered that Huang had developed a close relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen residing in Singapore and Nvidia's client, and concluded that he was transmitting information directly to Beijing.

The two have no relation whatsoever, according to the newspaper, adding that Alice Huang was previously a television journalist in China, before taking a top position at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company that became one of Nvidia's largest customers in Southeast Asia.

Megaspeed has purchased semiconductors from Nvidia worth more than $4.8 billion (about €4.1 billion) in the last two years, the New York Times also states.