Jensen Huang, the 63-year-old founder and CEO of Nvidia — the company whose chips power virtually every serious artificial intelligence system in the country — was caught on video at a San Jose hotel during the company's March 2026 GTC conference with Kimberly Powell, his 48-year-old vice president of health care. That was the second affair. The first, according to reports, was with a woman named Alice Huang, a former executive at a company called Megaspeed who U.S. officials have identified as a Chinese intelligence asset.
The guy building America's AI future may have been compromised by Chinese intelligence through the oldest trick in the book.
Nvidia's board opened a formal investigation on November 8 and brought in Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz — one of the most powerful law firms in the country — to run it. That same day, Huang released a staff memo: "I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did." The memo addressed the Powell relationship. It did not address Alice Huang.
NVDA dropped 8% in after-hours trading, falling to its lowest level since July 2025. Earnings are scheduled for November 17. Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at Jonestrading, put it plainly: "If these allegations are confirmed by the independent investigation, one has to expect the board to remove him."
Congressional scrutiny is now intensifying. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast set a November 11 deadline for Huang to respond to questions, and a classified briefing is scheduled for November 18. The national security angle is not subtle — Nvidia's chips are subject to some of the tightest export controls in U.S. history precisely because of concerns about Chinese access to advanced AI hardware. The CEO of that company allegedly had a personal relationship with someone U.S. officials flagged as working for Chinese intelligence.
The Powell affair is a corporate governance disaster on its own. Nvidia's code of conduct explicitly prohibits manager-subordinate romantic relationships. Powell's estimated net worth sits at roughly $73 billion — a figure that could become relevant very quickly if divorce proceedings materialize. Security personnel allegedly sequestered a witness to the hotel video and offered a nondisclosure agreement. That's the kind of detail that turns a personal scandal into an obstruction question.
But the Alice Huang connection is the one that should keep national security officials awake. This isn't a mid-level program manager at a regional tech firm. This is the CEO of the most strategically important semiconductor company on the planet, a company whose products are at the center of the U.S.-China technology competition. Export controls, CHIPS Act funding, classified military AI programs — Nvidia touches all of it.
When the New York Times reached Huang by phone, he said, "I don't think you should be talking to me directly," and hung up.
Congress has been spending years debating whether TikTok is a national security threat because a Chinese parent company might have access to American teenagers' dance videos. Meanwhile, the CEO of the company manufacturing America's AI infrastructure allegedly had a relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, and the first congressional briefing isn't until next week.
Earnings call is November 17. Congressional briefing is November 18. The board investigation is ongoing. The stock is cratering. And the man at the center of all of it answered his phone, said eight words, and hung up.