Nvidia's board is preparing to remove chief executive Jensen Huang, according to two sources cited by a US broadcaster, and was meeting late on Wednesday US time to decide his future. A US business newspaper first reported the board's moves. Nothing was confirmed by the company at the time of writing, and the outcome was not known on Thursday morning in India.
The allegations
Huang reportedly had an extramarital affair with a woman whom US intelligence agencies believe to be a Chinese asset. Another newspaper reported that agencies believed he was the target of a Chinese spying plot and that she had previously led Singapore-based Megaspeed International; she is reportedly believed by US agencies to have been recruited by China's Ministry of State Security. A separate report alleged a second relationship, with an employee who reported to him. Huang told employees over the weekend that he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologised, without naming anyone.
China's foreign ministry called the spy account baseless and a smear. On Monday President Donald Trump called Huang a very high-quality person and said the FBI is looking into the matter, adding that Huang told him he had no idea the woman was a spy.
The company and the markets
On Sunday the board said it had launched an independent investigation into whether Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. It said it had no reason to believe that company secrets or national security had been compromised. A spokesperson said the company trusts the government would have told it of a genuine threat.
Two law enforcement sources told the broadcaster that the Justice Department is investigating Megaspeed over possible violations of export limits on advanced AI chips; Megaspeed denies involvement in illegal transfers. Nvidia also faces a securities lawsuit that alleges it failed to disclose information about Huang's relationship with the woman. Shares fell more than 8 per cent in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the first report, extending a multi-day sell-off.
Why it matters in India
Nvidia chips feature in several of the AI infrastructure plans announced in India. At the AI summit in New Delhi in February, Yotta Data Services announced plans to deploy more than 20,000 Nvidia Blackwell processors and Larsen and Toubro said it would build a gigawatt-scale AI factory with the company. Last year the Trump administration allowed Nvidia to sell H200 chips to approved Chinese customers, with the government taking 25 per cent of the sales. All claims about Huang and the woman come from anonymous sources and press reports, and none has been proved.
