[DigitalToday reporter Hyunwoo Choo] The fallout is growing after Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang (젠슨 황) acknowledged an affair. On Nov. 9 (local time), CNBC reported Nvidia’s board has launched an independent investigation into national security concerns raised in media reports.

The New York Times (NYT) reported U.S. intelligence agencies suspect Alice Huang (앨리스 황), an executive at Singapore cloud company MegaSpeed, is a Chinese intelligence asset. NYT said a money memo circulating among Trump administration policy officials last spring said a Chinese businesswoman close to Huang passed U.S. AI semiconductor information to China’s top intelligence agency. The U.S. House Select Committee on China said in a statement on Nov. 5 that Alice Huang was an "openly reported Chinese intelligence asset" and asked Huang to attend a briefing on the 18th.

Huang did not mention Alice Huang or MegaSpeed directly in a statement. He said, "I support the investigation and will cooperate fully," and added, "I am proud and grateful to be an American." Nvidia said it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised, but the board’s investigation would review all available information.

MegaSpeed rents out GPU computing resources based at Southeast Asian data centres to Asia-Pacific companies. It describes itself as a "core business partner" in Nvidia’s computing cloud business. Bloomberg reported in December last year that the U.S. government was investigating the company’s ownership structure and whether Nvidia chips were being smuggled into China. MegaSpeed countered that inspections by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), Malaysia’s Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, and Nvidia found no evidence of illegal transfers.

MegaSpeed has already drawn attention over allegations linked to U.S. export controls on China. U.S. authorities last year examined whether MegaSpeed and its Malaysian affiliate helped Chinese companies gain access to Nvidia AI chips.

Little is publicly known about Alice Huang’s activities. It is also not confirmed when the two first met. A LinkedIn post by Netsunder during Computex Taipei in 2024 showed the two at a bar with other tech industry executives. In May 2025, a Taiwanese media video showed the two leaving a restaurant in Taipei with other executives.

Singapore corporate documents list Alice Huang as Huang Le. MegaSpeed International was established in 2015 as "7Road International" and changed to its current name on March 7, 2023. The day before, Alice Huang, a Chinese national, was appointed as a director alongside Chang Yang, also a Chinese national, and she also became managing director. Both resigned on the same day, Nov. 10.

The ownership structure also changed that year. When Alice Huang was appointed, 7Road International HK Ltd transferred its entire stake in the Singapore entity to Huang Le Ltd in the British Virgin Islands. In November that year, the stake was transferred again to SwiftData, a Singapore entity established on Oct. 31, 2023. SwiftData is currently MegaSpeed’s sole shareholder.

Markets reacted immediately. Nvidia shares fell more than 5 percent in U.S. premarket trade and slid more than 6 percent in Frankfurt. Dan Ives (댄 아이브스) said the incident would be "a moment that will leave a stain on Jensen" and would weigh on the stock. Nasdaq futures were weaker on the Nvidia fallout. Intel, Micron and Qualcomm fell, while Broadcom and AMD rose. In Asia, TSMC, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix all ended higher.