Trump Says FBI Is 'Looking Into' Nvidia CEO's Relationship With Alleged Chinese Spy as Shareholder Class Action Is Filed

Since Nvidia's board announced Sunday that it was opening an independent investigation into CEO Jensen Huang, the story has widened from a corporate governance matter into a White House and courtroom issue. Today, Nov. 9, President Trump said the FBI is looking into it. A proposed class action has also been filed against Nvidia and Huang.

Trump: FBI is 'looking into it'

Trump told reporters at the White House that he spoke with Huang by phone Monday. "I asked him that question: 'Did you have any idea that she was a spy?' He said: 'I had no idea that she was a spy,' and I really believe him," Trump said.

On the FBI, Trump was vague. "I know the FBI is looking into it in terms of something else, and I think that he'll be in good shape," he said. He did not say what the FBI is examining or when that work began. The FBI declined to comment to the BBC.

That is a shift from Sunday, when Trump told reporters he had not spoken to Huang. He called the CEO "an honorable guy," said "you never know what is going on," and said Huang "probably has an excuse for it." He also said Huang should stay on as CEO and that he would be open to taking him on an upcoming trip to Asia.

Pressed repeatedly Monday on when he learned of the relationship, Trump said only that he was informed "over a period of time." He added that he was "sure" Chinese President Xi Jinping would "ask me about it" at their next meeting.

What U.S. officials allege

The underlying allegations come from reporting by the New York Times. According to that reporting, U.S. intelligence officials believe Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, was working for Beijing. She is unrelated to Jensen Huang and was a managing director of Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company that buys Nvidia's AI chips. The Times reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a memo to top Washington officials last spring warning that the Nvidia chief was in a close relationship with a Chinese spy.

The Times also reported that authorities were already investigating whether Alice Huang was helping China obtain restricted advanced Nvidia chips before surveillance turned up her relationship with Huang. Megaspeed has itself been investigated over suspicions that it helped Beijing reach processors barred from export to China.

Per the Times, intelligence agencies believe she pushed Huang to lobby Trump for looser export controls, which Huang has done publicly on multiple occasions. Those are allegations from U.S. officials, not findings from a court or agency.

Christopher Johnson, a 20-year U.S. intelligence veteran who focused on China and now runs China Strategies Group, laid out two possible motives on PBS. One is physical access to Huang's phones and computers. The other is an influence operation. The reporting so far, he said, points to the latter: pressing Huang to use his access to Trump, "probably not to rescind existing export controls, but to prevent him from issuing new ones."

Nvidia's response and China's denial

Huang admitted in an email to employees that he was unfaithful to his wife and apologized to his family. Nvidia's board said a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, will run the investigation. The board said it "has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised," while the inquiry will "examine all available information."

Huang said Monday he is "committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America's national security" and will cooperate.

Beijing rejects the account. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said: "The narrative of a so-called Chinese spy is entirely baseless vilification and smearing." An earlier ministry statement called the allegations "entirely groundless, speculative and intended to smear and malign China."

Huang's defenders, including Elon Musk and several finance executives, have described the affair as a personal lapse in judgment rather than evidence of disloyalty to the United States, according to the Guardian.

Market hit and lawsuit

Nvidia shares fell about 4% Monday, wiping roughly $250 billion off the company's market value, according to the BBC's figures.

A proposed class-action lawsuit has now been filed against Nvidia and Huang, according to a court filing cited by Reuters. It accuses them of defrauding shareholders by concealing Huang's alleged ties to a suspected Chinese spy. These are the plaintiffs' allegations and have not been tested in court. Neither Nvidia nor Huang has publicly responded to the suit in the material cited. Separately, shareholder law firms have announced investigations into whether the company made misleading statements.

Trump has not said what the FBI is examining, and the agency has not confirmed any inquiry. The White House has not said when Trump was first briefed beyond "over a period of time." Nvidia's board has set no timeline for its probe.

Washington treats Nvidia's China exports as a national security matter, and Huang's public lobbying on those exports is now part of what the board's committee and any federal inquiry will have to sort out.