This has intensified political pressure over Washington’s efforts to restrict China’s access to advanced American technology.

The company announced on Sunday that a “committee of independent directors” would conduct the investigation with the assistance of outside counsel, examining whether Huang’s relationship with the woman, identified as Alice Huang, or Huang Le, had exposed NVidia’s sensitive technology or information to foreign intelligence operations.

“While the board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVidia secrets were compromised, the board’s inquiry will examine all available information,” NVidia’s board of directors said, while expressing continued “confidence in Jensen and his leadership team”.

Huang will remain in charge of the company while the investigation is underway.

The probe follows a report published by The New York Times on October 29, alleging that Alice Huang had attempted to cultivate a close relationship with the billionaire executive as part of an alleged Chinese intelligence operation targeting NVidia, one of the most strategically important companies in the global artificial intelligence industry.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, has denied the spying allegations.

According to The New York Times, Alice Huang’s employer, Megaspeed, had also emerged as one of NVidia’s largest customers, purchasing approximately $4.8 billion worth of equipment from the US company, raising further questions about the commercial and political dimensions of the alleged operation.

The allegations have triggered a bipartisan backlash in Washington, where lawmakers have increasingly portrayed China’s technological development as a threat to US economic and military dominance while pushing for tighter restrictions on advanced semiconductor exports.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said Congress had repeatedly raised concerns about NVidia’s advanced artificial intelligence chips reaching China and demanded explanations from Huang and the company’s board.

“For months, bipartisan members of Congress have raised concerns about NVIDIA’s advanced AI chips going to China,” Warren said in a statement.

“NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang and NVIDIA’s board owe Congress answers. And we need to pass bipartisan legislation we have ready to stop advanced American technology from going to China.”

Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives have also called on Huang to testify before Congress on November 18, arguing that the allegations require scrutiny over potential national security implications.

“It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk,” Republicans John Moolenaar, Brian Mast and Rick Crawford said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Huang acknowledged the personal relationship in an email to NVidia employees on Sunday, admitting that he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologizing for the impact on his family.

“I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse ‌for what I did,” Huang said.

The controversy comes as Washington continues to use national security arguments to justify restrictions on China’s access to advanced semiconductors, a policy that has become a central instrument in the US campaign to maintain its technological advantage over Beijing.

NVidia, whose chips and programming platforms have become essential to the development of artificial intelligence systems, has benefited enormously from the global AI boom, with its market valuation reaching trillions of dollars as demand from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google has surged.

At the same time, the company has become increasingly entangled in the political and commercial priorities of the Trump administration.

Huang has maintained close ties with US President Donald Trump since the Republican leader returned to the White House in 2025, as NVidia seeks to navigate Washington’s export restrictions while protecting its access to the Chinese market.

In August 2025, the Trump administration announced that it would receive a 15 percent share of certain NVidia chip sales to China, an arrangement that further demonstrated the administration’s willingness to use its control over technology exports as a source of political and financial leverage.

Trump has also reportedly purchased up to $1.6 million worth of NVidia shares before selling approximately $1 million in August, ahead of the November midterm elections.

The company’s political exposure has intensified amid growing domestic divisions over artificial intelligence regulation, with Trump resisting calls to impose tighter controls on the industry while Democratic candidates campaigned during the midterm elections for restrictions on technology companies, including limits on data center construction.

Following widespread Republican losses in the elections, AI-related stocks, including NVidia, came under pressure, although the company recovered some ground after losing $450 billion in market value in a single trading session last week.