On Sunday, Jensen Huang's problem was a board investigation. By Monday night, it was the FBI, Congress, and his own shareholders — all at once.

President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that the FBI is looking into Huang after the Nvidia chief admitted to an affair with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive whom U.S. intelligence officials believe is a Chinese intelligence asset. Trump said he had spoken to Huang that day: "I asked him that question: 'Did you have any idea that she was a spy?' He said: 'I had no idea that she was a spy.' And I really believe him."

The same day, the chairmen of three House committees — foreign affairs, intelligence, and the China select committee — wrote to Huang requesting a joint closed-door briefing on November 18, to discuss Nvidia's security protocols and his interactions with a woman the letter described as a publicly reported Chinese intelligence asset.

And five minutes after the market closed, shareholders sued. A proposed class action filed in federal court in San Jose accuses Nvidia and Huang of defrauding investors by concealing the affair and the national-security concerns it raised, according to Reuters.

The market had already rendered its verdict: Nvidia shares closed down 4.3% on Monday, wiping roughly $190 billion off the company's value and hitting a seven-month low.

Huang admitted the affair in a message to employees on Sunday: "I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry." Nvidia's board announced an independent investigation the same day, saying it had "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised."

The affair is the personal half of a national-security story that broke October 29, when the New York Times reported Huang was the target of a Chinese spy operation and later reported Alice Huang served as a spy for China's Ministry of State Security. China has denied the claims.

That history is what makes Monday's pile-on more than a tabloid scandal. Huang has been Silicon Valley's loudest voice against U.S. export controls on AI chips, and every one of those arguments will now be read through the lens of the relationship. The question Congress and the FBI want answered is whether the most important executive in the AI race was compromised — and what he may have passed along before anyone noticed.

— via Reuters