Hard Fork
Hard Fork

The Jensen Huang Affair

November 10, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The Jensen Huang Affair

When The New York Times broke the story that Jensen Huang—Nvidia's founder and CEO, the most consequential figure in the AI hardware industry—had been having an affair with an alleged Chinese spy whose company was funneling advanced Nvidia chips to China in violation of U.S. export controls, the reaction from technology journalist Stephen Witt was less shock than recognition. "Everyone knew the Malaysia data center thing was a cutout to smuggle China," Witt told Hard Fork from a hotel room in Singapore at 3:30 a.m. local time. "That had been reported actually by the Times over a year ago." The affair itself? "There were whispers. I had heard stuff about this going into the summer."

What broke the story open, Witt explained, was something reporters rarely get access to: White House intelligence. The wiretap on Huang's alleged affair partner, a woman named Alice, had picked up the Nvidia CEO. That intelligence, prepared into a memo by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and shared with President Trump, went nowhere. Trump took no action. And that inaction may be why the story finally leaked—someone inside the administration wanted to reduce Huang's influence.

The King of Nvidia

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:43) **The Story Breaks: Jensen Wong's Affair and the Spy Scandal** - The host introduces the bombshell: Nvidia CEO Jensen Wong is having an affair with an alleged Chinese spy whose company was funneling chips to China.
  • 2 (04:06) **Stephen Witt's Reaction: The Revelations** - Witt, reporting from Singapore, describes the chaos of the last 48 hours and assesses how much of the story was already known.
  • 3 (06:58) **The "King" of Nvidia: Key Man Risk** - Witt explains Jensen's unique, absolute control over Nvidia and why this scandal is uniquely damaging.
  • 4 (08:48) **Will Jensen Be Ousted?** - Witt analyzes the likelihood of Jensen being fired and the real legal dangers he faces.
  • 5 (10:52) **Hubris and the "Walking Red Flag"** - Witt describes the sheer poor judgment of Jensen's affair with a woman who had no computer science background and was a "walking red flag."
  • 6 (12:39) **The Family Man Image Shattered** - The conversation turns to Jensen's carefully cultivated family-man persona and the role of his children at Nvidia.
  • 7 (14:03) **Jensen and Trump: A Relationship of Flattery** - The host asks how Jensen became Trump's favorite CEO and a key figure in AI policy.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, has admitted to an affair with a top executive at the data center company Megaspeed — a woman going by the name of Alice Huang who the U.S. government alleges is a Chinese spy.

In this special midweek episode of “Hard Fork,” we sit down with Stephen Witt, who wrote last year’s Jensen Huang biography “The Thinking Machine.”

We’ll dig into what you need to know about this spiraling scandal and what it means for A.I. and the global economy.

 

Guests:

  • Stephen Witt, author of “The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip”
     

Additional Reading:

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