Nvidia is opening an investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was the "target of a foreign intelligence effort", the company’s board of directors said Sunday.
The announcement came after Huang acknowledged to the board that he had been intimate with a business executive whom US intelligence determined was gathering information for Beijing, The New York Times reported.
Huang apologised in a message to the company, according to the Times. "I was unfaithful to my wife," he said. "My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry."
An investigation’s underway into co-founder Jensen Huang. (Source: 1News)
Nvidia's board said in a statement it had "no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised", but that its inquiry would examine all available information.
Huang "fully supports the review and has committed to cooperating with it", the board said.
Huang, 63, will remain CEO during the investigation.
The Times reported US intelligence agencies had discovered last month that Huang had developed a close relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and chip buyer, and determined that she was feeding information directly to Beijing. The two were not related, according to the Times.
Results exceed analyst projections since Nvidia’s high-end chips emerged as AI’s best building blocks three years ago. (Source: 1News)
Alice Huang was previously a television reporter in China before becoming a top executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed, which has become one of Nvidia’s biggest customers in Southeast Asia. Megaspeed bought more than US$4.8 billion ($8.62 billion) worth of Nvidia chips over the past two years, according to the Times.
Trump: 'I think he's an honourable guy'
President Donald Trump said on Sunday he hadn’t spoken to Jensen Huang about the latest development and praised him. “I hope everything’s fine then. He’s done such an incredible job,” Trump said, speaking to reporters before returning to the White House.
Asked whether he wished he had acted on intelligence when he was briefed about spying, Trump again praised Huang: “I think he’s an honourable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it. He’s done an amazing job for our country.”
As to whether he’d take the CEO with him on his trip to Asia next week, Trump said he was open to it.
“I don’t know but I’d certainly take him,” he said of Huang, who serves on the president’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday as he was departing the US for a G7 meeting in Paris that he could not address the situation with Huang.
“I just can't comment because of the nature of it,” he told reporters. “And I also can't comment on an internal corporate matter that's going on with Nvidia.”
Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, has regularly surpassed Wall Street’s earnings expectations in the past three years since its high-end chips emerged as AI’s best building blocks. The Santa Clara, California-based company reported quarterly profits of $59.69 billion in August.
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds including a car crashes into an Auckland burger joint, and how an alligator ended up in a carpark. (Source: 1News)
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