In the technology industry, the risk posed by top executives’ personal relationships has become as much a part of corporate governance as cybersecurity and data protection. The resignation of Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive of Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of AI chips, has brought the issue back into focus. After leading the company for 33 years, he stepped down amid controversy over his personal relationships and a possible security risk.
On Thursday (12 November), Huang gave up both the chief executive post and his seat on the board. The board named chief financial officer Colette Kress interim chief executive; she will hold both roles until a permanent successor is appointed. At the same time Harvey Jones, a board member since 1993, became the first chair of the board in the company’s history.
According to The New York Times, US intelligence officials believe China’s Ministry of State Security recruited Alice Huang (Huang Le) to gather information about Jensen Huang and to influence his views on selling AI chips to China. In 2023 Alice Huang was listed as an executive of Megaspeed, a Singapore-based cloud company that is an Nvidia customer. She is not related to Jensen Huang. In an email to employees on 8 November, Jensen Huang admitted he had been unfaithful to his wife, and the board opened an independent investigation. The New York Times and Reuters then reported that he had also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reported directly to him. After that came to light, the board decided on a change of leadership.
Data protection and access to decisions
The allegation does not centre on the theft of secret documents or technical designs. According to The New York Times, the aim was twofold: to learn about the person who makes the decisions and to influence his views. The backdrop is Nvidia’s advanced H200 chip. In December 2025, US President Donald Trump approved exports of the chip to China on conditions that include shipment inspections, a ban on military use and a 25 percent tariff. During policy bargaining of this kind, advance knowledge of a company chief’s position is valuable to any party.
Megaspeed and the question of chip supply
According to the Financial Times, in early 2025 Alice Huang and her business partner Kang Wei told investors they had no problem securing GPUs, and named Alibaba as a customer for a new data centre project. According to reports, Megaspeed bought more than $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over the past two years. The company has been investigated in the United States and Singapore over whether the chips were being diverted to China. Megaspeed denies any illegal chip dealings.
Denials and the board’s position
Guo Jiakun, spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, rejected the espionage allegations on 9 November as “baseless” and a smear against China. In his email to employees, Jensen Huang apologised to his family, employees, the board and shareholders, and said he would cooperate with the board’s investigation. Nvidia’s board has said it has so far found no reason to believe that US national security or Nvidia’s confidential information was compromised. The US government has not publicly presented any evidence of espionage. Even so, Nvidia’s share price fell more than 14 percent at one point on Thursday on news of the leadership change.
Other recent cases
Several attempts to gather sensitive information by exploiting personal relationships, known as honeytraps, have been proven in court. In 2011, Taiwanese army Major General Lo Hsien-che was sentenced to life imprisonment for spying for China. The case began with his acquaintance with a woman while he was posted in Thailand.
In May 2023, Maharashtra police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested Pradeep Kurulkar, director of a laboratory in Pune run by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). He is accused of exchanging sensitive information with a Pakistani intelligence agent who approached him on social media posing as a woman. In both cases, trust was built over a long period rather than through immediate pressure.
Analysts say that because artificial intelligence and semiconductors are now at the centre of global geopolitics, the personal and professional conduct of the industry’s top executives is under far closer scrutiny than before.
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