Former Nvidia CEO set to testify before a U.S. Senate committee

A political storm has engulfed Silicon Valley’s most influential chipmaker, with US lawmakers summoning Jensen Huang — a central figure in the artificial intelligence boom — to answer questions in December after the Nvidia ex-CEO resigned amid revelations of extramarital affairs, including one involving a woman US intelligence suspects is linked to Chinese espionage.

The upheaval has erased almost half a trillion dollars from Nvidia’s market valuation, rattling investors and intensifying national security anxieties as the AI industry faces a leadership vacuum at one of its most pivotal companies.

“Recent reports raise serious concerns about our national security and the protection of sensitive US technology,” Republican Senator Tim Scott wrote on X.

Mr Scott said he was requesting Mr Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify in December before the Senate Banking Committee, which he chairs.

His demand follows a separate move in the House of Representatives, where three committees have called for a closed-door interview with Mr Huang on 1 December and warned they could issue a subpoena if he does not comply.

Mr Huang, who has been married to his wife Lori for over 40 years, admitted on Sunday to an affair, reportedly with Alice Huang, a former senior executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed. The two are not related.

Alice Huang was a former senior executive at Megaspeed

US intelligence reportedly circulated a memo this spring alleging she was an asset of China’s Ministry of State Security. Beijing has rejected the allegations.

On Wednesday, the New York Times reported a second affair, citing video of Mr Huang being affectionate with Nvidia’s vice president of health care, Kimberly Powell.

As Nvidia’s board works to find a permanent successor to Mr Huang — who led the company for 33 years after co-founding it — chief Financial Officer Colette Kress has been installed as interim CEO.

Nvidia rose to the center of the tech world after OpenAI’s ChatGPT debuted in 2022 and set off a worldwide surge to build AI systems, turning the company’s processors — originally built for video game graphics — into essential hardware for training and running AI models.

Informal Trump adviser

Nvidia did not give a reason for the departure of Mr Huang, who also gave up his board seat.

Mr Huang is Nvidia’s largest individual shareholder, with a stake of about 3.6%, according to the company.

The Taiwanese-born businessman also served as a close informal adviser to US President Donald Trump on AI and had long pressed against restrictions on selling advanced AI chips to China, arguing against curbs imposed for national security reasons.

Dan Ives of investment bank Yorkville Ives called it “a dark day for Nvidia and the US tech industry”.

But he said the board had done what it needed: “Rip off the band-aid and take Nvidia into its next chapter without him.”

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The board appointed Harvey Jones, a former chief executive of chip design software firm Synopsys, as chair, and said it expected the company’s operations and product roadmap “to continue without interruption”.

Interim CEO Kress joined Nvidia in 2013 after nearly 25 years at companies including Cisco and Microsoft.

Mr Trump, who had stood by Mr Huang throughout the scandal, said former Apple boss Tim Cook should take over.

“A Legend replaces a Legend!” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social network, adding that Mr Cook had made Apple “one of the great companies of the world at a fairly short range”.

‘Going through hell’

Singapore said yesterday it had barred Alice Huang, a Chinese national, from re-entering the country in February for giving investigators inaccurate information about her role at Megaspeed, though she was not investigated for espionage.

Nvidia’s board opened a probe on Sunday into reporting that Mr Huang had been the target of a “foreign intelligence effort,” while saying it retained confidence in him.

When asked yesterday if Mr Huang should have stepped down, Mr Trump said it would depend.

“If the woman was a spy, yes. If the woman was not a spy, perhaps it would be different,” Mr Trump said in an interview.

But Mr Trump said he was confident that Mr Huang will “end up on his feet,” adding: “I spoke to him yesterday. He’s going through hell. What he feels most badly about is his wife and family.”

Fueling the controversy are broader tensions between Washington and Beijing, as the United States and China vie for dominance in an industry widely described as the next industrial revolution.

Key US politicians, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, have called for answers on what the Trump administration knew about Mr Huang’s ties to the suspected Chinese spy, days before Mr Trump travels to China for a summit.

Reports allege the Commerce Department under Mr Lutnick may have failed to act on suspicions that Megaspeed was helping reroute restricted Nvidia technology to China.

Singapore’s home ministry said it had repeatedly sought information from the US Justice Department and FBI on a US server supplier during its Megaspeed probe, but “received limited information or assistance”.