Nvidia’s board said on Sunday, November 8, 2026, that it is starting an independent investigation “in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort,” according to the board’s statement as quoted by NBC News. The board said a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, will oversee the inquiry. As quoted in the reports Lens read, the statement does not name a country.

What the board and Nvidia said

  • The board said it “has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised” and that its inquiry “will examine all available information,” as quoted by CNBC, NBC News and ABC News. NBC also quotes it as saying the board “prioritizes U.S. national and economic security.”
  • ABC News and Decrypt quote the board as saying: “The Board has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team.” CNBC’s page does not include that line.
  • Nvidia said Huang “fully supports the review,” according to ABC News and CBS News, and a spokesperson said Huang is “committed to continuing to lead NVIDIA as CEO without interruption,” according to ABC News. CBS News quotes Huang as saying: “I support the investigation and will cooperate fully.”
  • CBS News quotes Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo as saying: “We trust that if we were the target of a genuine threat, the U.S. government would have notified us.”

Huang’s note to staff

In an email to employees on Sunday, shared with NBC News, ABC News and CNBC, Huang wrote: “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did.” According to NBC News, he also wrote: “I have fallen short of that responsibility. I am fully committed to NVIDIA and will work to earn back your confidence.” ABC News, CBS News and Decrypt report that the email did not name the other person.

The reporting behind the investigation

The reports describe allegations that come from unnamed U.S. officials and sources, and none has been confirmed publicly.

  • The New York Times reported in late October, according to ABC News, that U.S. intelligence officials believe Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed (TechCrunch calls her a former executive), passed information to Beijing and developed a “close relationship” with Jensen Huang. NBC News and Decrypt describe her as a Chinese citizen. CBS News and NBC News note that she is not related to the Nvidia CEO.
  • The Financial Times reported that a U.S. government memo said Huang was “romantically involved” with her, according to Decrypt, and, according to Decrypt, that U.S. intelligence believes she was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security. NBC News dates the FT report to Friday; Decrypt dates it to Saturday, November 7. Nvidia declined to comment on the memo, according to Decrypt.
  • Nvidia has said that Huang’s interactions with her were “not unusual or unexpected,” according to ABC News and Decrypt. NBC News quotes Huang as saying earlier: “Our relationship, our interactions, have been related to Megaspeed, and it was all completely normal and not unusual.”
  • Megaspeed is an Nvidia customer. CBS News, citing the Times, says it bought more than $4.8 billion in Nvidia chips over two years. Decrypt, also citing the Times, attributes at least $4.8 billion in purchases of equipment containing Nvidia chips, between June 2024 and February 2026, to a Malaysian sister company. U.S. officials suspected Megaspeed of helping Chinese companies get around chip restrictions, according to Decrypt, citing the Times.

None of the reports Lens read includes a comment from Alice Huang or Megaspeed, and none reports charges. Decrypt reports that Megaspeed has said it hired outside lawyers for an internal review. CBS News says the CIA, NSA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately comment.

Responses

  • Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Monday that the “so-called Chinese spy narrative” was baseless or unsubstantiated, according to CBS News and CNBC. The outlets’ renderings of the full remark differ.
  • Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to comment on Sunday, calling it an “internal corporate matter,” according to CBS News.
  • President Donald Trump said Sunday that he had not spoken to Huang about the investigation and called him “an honorable guy,” according to CNBC. NBC News quotes him as calling Huang a “fine person.”

Congressional request

ABC News reports that Republicans on the House Select Committee on China sent Huang a letter asking him to appear for a closed-door briefing on November 18. The letter says: “Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the PRC’s access to sensitive U.S. technology.” CNBC says three House Republican committee chairs wrote to Huang on Wednesday; NBC News says top House Republicans made the request on Thursday. The Financial Times, as summarised by Decrypt, names the House China, foreign affairs and intelligence committees. ABC News says it is not known whether Huang will appear.

Market reaction

Nvidia shares were down about 5% in premarket trading on Monday, November 9, according to CNBC and NBC News. StockTitan’s market tracker had them down 4.72% at 10:02 a.m. Eastern, which it estimated at about $212 billion in market value since Friday’s close. Decrypt, citing Yahoo Finance, puts the premarket price at $177.32 against Friday’s close of $186.64. CNBC reports that Intel, Marvell, Qualcomm and Arm were each down more than 1% premarket, and notes that Nvidia’s third-quarter earnings are due November 17. Outlets differ on Nvidia’s rank by market value: NBC News says it was second at nearly $4.5 trillion as of Friday, while CBS News calls it the world’s most valuable company. Lens covered Apple overtaking Nvidia on October 30 in an earlier post.

What the reports do not include

The reports Lens read do not include a timeline or scope for the board’s investigation, any public evidence for the intelligence allegations, or a statement from the U.S. government on the matter beyond Rubio’s and Trump’s remarks. They do not say whether Huang will brief Congress.

Sources and notes

This post is based on reports by CNBC (November 8 and 9, 2026), CBS News, NBC News, ABC News and Decrypt, with one detail from TechCrunch (November 8) and one market figure from StockTitan. Lens did not read the New York Times or Financial Times reports, the U.S. government memo the FT describes, or the full text of the board’s statement, so their contents come from the outlets named. The allegations about Alice Huang and Jensen Huang are reported claims from unnamed sources, not findings, and Lens did not contact Nvidia, Megaspeed, Alice Huang or the U.S. government. Coverage was still developing when this post was written.

Image: A close-up photograph of a bare Nvidia GP100 graphics-processor chip (die) from a Tesla P100 accelerator, by Fritzchens Fritz via Wikimedia Commons, released under CC0 1.0; cropped. Stand-in photo; it is not related to Nvidia’s board investigation and does not show the events described.