Nvidia Board Opens Probe of Jensen Huang’s Reported China Ties

By Rebecca Stone

Megaspeed bought more than $4.8 billion in Nvidia chips over two years, according to SF Standard, as Nvidia’s board opened an independent investigation into chief executive Jensen Huang on Nov. 8, 2026. Independent directors are running the review with outside counsel.

The probe follows reports linking Huang to Alice Huang, whom U.S. officials reportedly identify as an alleged Chinese intelligence asset. She has no relation to him. CBS News reported that the board has no reason to believe company secrets or national security were compromised. The rest remains allegation.

What do the allegations involve?

Newsweek, citing The New York Times, reported that U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Alice Huang was an alleged Chinese intelligence asset. She previously worked as a Chinese television reporter and later became a senior executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company and major Nvidia customer.

U.S. authorities also suspect Megaspeed of helping China obtain export-controlled chips, a charge the company denies. China calls the claims groundless speculation. Three Republican committee chairs have requested a closed-door briefing for Huang on Nov. 18.

How did Huang’s China warning become a lobbying campaign?

On Nov. 5, 2025, Huang told the Financial Times at the Future of AI Summit: “China is going to win the AI race.” According to Fox Business, he cited Western cynicism, China’s lower energy costs and lighter regulation, and criticized new U.S. state AI rules.

Reuters reported that Huang then wrote on X that China was only nanoseconds behind and that America had to race ahead and win developers worldwide. The remarks made the case for changing U.S. policy. One year later, Nvidia faces a different China story: the board probe. The two matters are unrelated.

• May 2025: Huang called U.S. export controls a failure that pushed Chinese customers toward local alternatives. He projected China’s AI-chip market could reach $50 billion within two to three years, Yahoo Finance reported.
• Dec. 8, 2025: TechCrunch reported that President Trump said Commerce would let Nvidia ship advanced chips to approved Chinese customers, with the U.S. taking a 25% cut.
• February to April 2026: The U.S. granted an export license. In April, Huang said Nvidia’s China market share had fallen to zero.
• May 2026: Sales to about 10 Chinese companies were reportedly approved during Trump’s Beijing trip, Yahoo Finance reported. Benzinga reported that Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Huang attended the trip to lobby.
• October 2026: In a Bloomberg interview, Huang said the company had made a mistake, apparently referring to U.S. limits on chip sales to China, while calling China a competitor rather than an enemy, Yahoo Finance reported.

How much does China contribute?

Customers headquartered in China, including Hong Kong, generated about 8% of Nvidia’s previous-quarter revenue, or roughly $7.9 billion, according to Motley Fool. Most of that came from products export restrictions do not cover. Nvidia’s most recent full-year China revenue was $19.67 billion, Yahoo Finance reported.

Beijing has limited purchases, while Nvidia booked a $400 million charge for excess advanced-chip inventory, Motley Fool reported. ByteDance and Tencent reportedly received roughly 10,000 units each over the summer. Each China-bound chip faces U.S. inspection and a 25% tariff.

What does $108 billion guidance exclude?

Nvidia generated $96.22 billion in fiscal Q2 2027 revenue, up 105.8% year over year. Its $108.0 billion Q3 guidance excludes any China data-center compute revenue. CFO Colette Kress said: “Given ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, there is no China data center compute revenue in our forward outlook.”

That exclusion is narrower than a full China-sales forecast. The previous quarter drew mostly from products outside export controls. For investors, the distinction matters: China data-center compute carries no forecast value even though unrestricted products drove most of the prior quarter’s China-linked revenue.

Who backs Huang, and how did shares react?

CNBC reported that President Trump said Huang should remain CEO and that the two spoke Monday. Newsweek, citing The New York Times, reported that U.S. intelligence briefed Trump on its findings in 2025 and that he chose not to act.

Nvidia closed Monday at $178.67, down 4.27% from $186.64, after reaching $170.24 intraday, Motley Fool reported. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF rose 2.37%, while the Invesco QQQ Trust gained 3.54%. Nvidia shares fell 22.07% over the previous month amid a broader AI selloff.

Nvidia’s market capitalization stood near $4.31 trillion, with a price-to-earnings ratio of 36. Newsweek linked the company’s Nov. 5 drop to election concerns about data-center construction. That decline predates the Nov. 8 board announcement.

What could the investigation change?

Yorkville Ives analyst Dan Ives said the situation could bring congressional inquiries and Huang’s removal, depending on what the board finds. Vital Knowledge’s Adam Crisafulli said it could raise the likelihood of tighter U.S. chip-export rules.

Nvidia’s next earnings report is expected Nov. 17, though the company has not confirmed the date. The requested Nov. 18 briefing follows. For Nvidia, export policy is the immediate competitive variable: tighter rules could accelerate Chinese demand for local chips, while broader approvals could put China data-center compute back into future guidance.