The unfolding Jensen Huang scandal: a timeline

Summary

• Jensen Huang admitted to cheating on his wife of 40 years in an affair with Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen suspected by U.S. officials of being a spy feeding information to Beijing.
• Alice Huang is of no relation to Jensen Huang & Megaspeed, a Singapore-based AI infrastructure company, purchased $4.8 billion in Nvidia chips over the last two years while under investigation for illegally sharing chips with China.
• The Justice Department has taken over the federal investigation into Megaspeed after the U.S. & Singapore previously investigated the firm for suspected export violations.
• The New York Times reported that Huang also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care who reports directly to him.
• Nvidia's board is preparing to oust Huang following reports of the affair & national security concerns, causing Nvidia shares to fall in after-hours trading.
• Three Republican committee chairmen requested a closed-door briefing from Huang regarding national security concerns & threatened to subpoena him if he refused.
• Huang withdrew from upcoming speaking engagements at the ElevenLabs Summit & Anthropic CEO Forum.
• Reports indicate Alice Huang & her family built a network of companies in China & Singapore to acquire Nvidia chips, including founding Shanghai Century Litong which facilitated $7.5 billion in chip purchases including banned chips.
• Nvidia's head lawyer Tim Teter intervened in a 2025 U.S. government probe regarding suspected chip smuggling by Megaspeed & contacted Commerce Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler.
• President Trump expressed support for Huang, calling him a "fine person" & stating he should remain chief of Nvidia.
• Huang issued a public apology to Nvidia employees for his infidelity & linked his actions to national security concerns while confirming the board initiated an independent investigation.
• Nvidia shares slid over 5% the day after Huang's public apology.
• U.S. officials circulated a secret memo in Spring 2026 warning that Alice Huang was a spy for China's Ministry of State Security & Secretary of State Marco Rubio supervised the memo's drafting.
• President Trump was briefed in late 2025 on intelligence findings regarding Alice Huang's relationship with Huang but did not take action.
• The U.S. & Singapore confirmed investigations into Megaspeed in October 2025 over suspicions that the firm helped Chinese companies bypass American chip export embargoes.
• Megaspeed was reported to be renting computing power to Alibaba & other Chinese companies while a Commerce Department official found hoards of packed Nvidia equipment in Malaysia in 2024.
• Jensen Huang was spotted socializing with Alice Huang in Taiwan as early as 2024.
• An Nvidia spokesperson previously stated the company had no reason to believe products had been diverted from Megaspeed.