Asian governments react to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s exit

Summary

• Nvidia's board launched an independent investigation on November 8 after reports that Jensen Huang was targeted by a Chinese spy operation & Huang admitted to an affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed.
• China's foreign ministry rejected allegations on November 10 that a Chinese businesswoman linked to Huang was a spy, calling them groundless & stated the ministry was not aware of reports linking restricted Nvidia chips to a Shanghai data center associated with Alice Huang.
• Huang's exit has raised uncertainty over more than $3 billion in Chinese AI computing projects reliant on Nvidia's restricted processors, which are subject to U.S. export controls.
• Singapore authorities seized Alice Huang's passport in June 2025 as part of an investigation into possible false declarations regarding server purchases & to ensure she remained available for questioning.
• Police in February 2026 found insufficient evidence to establish that Alice Huang committed offenses related to suspected false declarations but determined she knowingly provided inaccurate information about her role at Megaspeed.
• Alice Huang was issued a warning, barred from re-entering Singapore, & her passport was returned in February 2026.
• Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs stated its investigation into Megaspeed & six other individuals remains ongoing & noted limited assistance received from U.S. authorities regarding Supermicro.
• South Korea's Science Ministry said Nvidia reaffirmed its plan to supply 260,000 advanced GPUs to the country & to continue joint AI projects following Huang's exit.
• South Korea's government AI strategy council held an emergency meeting to assess the potential impact of Huang's departure on the country's AI industry.
• Taiwan's Economy Minister stated Huang's departure was unlikely to significantly change the growth of the global AI industry & Taipei's city government confirmed Nvidia's planned overseas headquarters remains on track.
• Japan's Industry Ministry said the government would closely monitor Nvidia & Deputy chief cabinet secretary Masanao Ozaki stressed Japan's commitment to ensuring a stable supply of semiconductors.