Nvidia’s shares dropped by 5% before markets opened Monday after the computer-chipmaking company began investigating CEO Jensen Huang’s tryst with a businesswoman who U.S. intelligence said is a Chinese spy.
Nvidia’s board launched an independent investigation into whether its leader was the “target of a foreign intelligence effort” after Mr. Huang was found to be having an affair with Alice Huang.
Ms. Huang, also known as Huang Le, is a Chinese citizen and former executive at cloud-computing company MegaSpeed. The company has bought billions in artificial intelligence chips from Nvidia, the world’s leader in chip technology.
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A secret memo from the State Department said Ms. Huang was suspected of being recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security, according to the New York Post.
“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,” the company, based in Santa Clara, California, said of its independent probe.
Mr. Huang said Sunday he “fully supports the review and has committed to cooperating with it.”
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