The Nvidia affair: Jensen Huang resigns amid China spy allegations

Who will lead one of the planet's most valuable companies It is the question that is gripping Washington, Wall Street, and the world of artificial intelligence after Jensen Huang just stepped down as the CEO of NVIDIA. It is a spectacular fall from grace for a man who co-founded a titan of the tech industry and helped... bankroll the AI boom. Now, NVIDIA is the world's leading designer of chips, which power AI models, making it vital to U.S. national security and America's rivalry with China. But Wang and NVIDIA decided that he had to go after it was revealed that he had two extramarital affairs, including one with an alleged Chinese spy. We'll talk about what comes next. But first, this report from Al Jazeera's Osama bin Jawad. NVIDIA sits at the heart of America's technological rivalry with China. It's a strategic asset, a market heavyweight, and now a case study in exposure. At the center is a decision by Donald Trump to allow the sale of some of America's most advanced AI chips to China. In December 2025, Trump approved exports of NVIDIA's H200 processors to authorize Chinese customers. AI processing chips roughly six times more powerful than the restricted H20 variant previously allowed. The terms were finalized in January. Chips must pass through the United States for inspection. Shipments cannot exceed half the volume sold to American customers. And buyers must certify they will not be used for military purposes. But the potential scale is enormous. Chinese companies reportedly ordered more than 2 million chips for 2026. At around $27,000 each, that's a potential market worth $54 billion. Worth remembering, it's orders, not completed sales. For Washington, the argument is that safeguards can manage the risk. Critics say the transfer itself could narrow America's technological lead, giving China access to computing power it could eventually replicate. For Nvidia, the commercial prize is huge, even with the risk that Beijing can eventually block the imports or turn to domestic alternatives, meaning those projected billions could disappear. And Washington wants a cut. Under an earlier arrangement, chip manufacturers NVIDIA and AMD agreed to give the US government a reported 15% of licensed chip sales to China. The H200 deal raises that to 25%. The administration is effectively tying government revenue to the volume of advanced technology sold to America's strategic competitor. That raises a fundamental question. Is Washington protecting national security or monetizing it? The controversy is further complicated by allegations surrounding NVIDIA chief Jensen Huang and a woman U.S. intelligence reportedly suspects of links to Chinese intelligence. Before resigning on Thursday, Huang acknowledged an affair. There is no established evidence he knowingly assisted Beijing or that company secrets were compromised. So now the FBI is investigating the spy scandal and the market is watching whether any of those two million chips ever ship. But the bigger issue is already visible. America's attempt to contain China's rise while profiting from selling it the very technology that could help it catch up. Osama bin Javed, Al Jazeera. I'm joined now by correspondents on Capitol Hill and on Wall Street. Let's start with Kristen Salumi, who is in New York. So, Kristen, there is no clear succession plan at NVIDIA. Tell us more about how we got here and who will replace Huang in the meantime. Yes, so, well, we know that Jensen Huang had an affair with Alice Wang, the CEO of an NVIDIA client, the Singapore-based company Megaspeed, which buys semiconductors. We don't know if she was a spy for China. That is the allegation. China has denied it. She hasn't spoken publicly. But the U.S. government, we know, is now investigating whether she was sending some of these chips. from her company to China, and that has given more scrutiny to some of the decisions and policies that Wang was making, calling for loosening restrictions on exporting chips to China. And with that as the backdrop, we have seen Nvidia move quickly to announce a temporary replacement for him, a woman who has been serving as the chief financial officer for Nvidia, Colette Kress. And Patty Culhane is on Capitol Hill. Patty, so there is that interim CEO. But President Trump, he decides to weigh in. He has his own thoughts about who should replace Wong. He does. And this whole issue has become a bit of a headache for the White House after the New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence believed that what Jensen Wong was having an affair with someone they believed could be a spy for China. That President Donald Trump was told about that not once but twice and that he still took him on that business trip that we mentioned to China. The president has denied that he knew about that, but he did post on social media. I do want to point that this could become an even bigger headache for the White House. I just talked to senator Richard Blumenthal, a democrat, and he said that he confirmed to Al Jazeera that there will be an investigation from the administration of the administration of the administration of the From the Senate side, at least, administration of the possibly the House as well, where they're going to look administration of the at this issue and especially the $25 million administration of the that NVIDIA is believed to have been given to the White House ballroom and whether or not that played a role in that business deal. And Kristen, back to you. It's hard to overstate how vital NVIDIA is to the AI industry. How are the markets reacting? Yeah, the markets have been vacillating between negative and positive all day as investors look for other tech stocks where they can put their money. NVIDIA, the big loser, of course, down about 5 percent now, more than 25 percent for the month. But the loss of NVIDIA seems to be the gain of these other tech companies. We're seeing other chip makers like Advanced Micro Devices and And Broadcom, their stocks are rising. Hyperscalers like Microsoft and Alphabet, the owner of Google, they're doing better as well. So the takeaway from this seems to be while NVIDIA was seen as a major driver and very important part of the AI boom, it doesn't look like investors think interest in AI is going to go away anytime soon because the markets, considering what a big shock this has been, are relatively stable. All right, and Patty, President Trump, on a different subject, he has been shifting his Iran strategy. What more can you tell us? Again, he took to social media, and this could be a very big deal. It shows a growing rift between the U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance. He put on social media that J.D. Vance needs to put his full focus, his complete and total attention on fighting corruption in states run by Democrats. He said, we don't need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed. Why does this matter? Well, J.D. Vance came out right after the midterm election losses for Republicans and blamed the Iran war. He had been sending letters, we know, to Iranian officials trying to figure out a way to end this war. For the president to dismiss it and say we don't need a deal, that very much shows what he's thinking right now. But Vance has been, Vice President Vance has been really central to these negotiations since the war began And the fact that he was making overtures. I think people in the region thought that that could lead to a breakthrough. This is the president on social media telling the vice president to basically stay out of it. Yeah, it is a remarkable split between the two men. All right, Patty Culhane on Capitol Hill, Chris in Salome, New York, thank you both very much. One of the final Senate races in the midterm election has just been called, and it is a historic one, in the state of Mississippi. Democrat Scott Colome has defeated the incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, Smith becoming the state's First black senator since 1874. It took more than a week to count the votes. It's a stunning upset for what was, until now, a Republican stronghold. Cologne thanked his supporters on Wednesday. Take a listen. Because it's not something that I did, y'all. It's something that we did. What I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this. I had the courage to believe in Mississippi. I have the courage to understand that we can show the country that Mississippi matters. And here's what Colome's supporters had to say. Why am I here? To see a dream 71 years old. You're almost over. I can tell. So I'm here to see that. I can't do this. We came here to perpetuate a legacy of greatness. We came to accentuate and perpetuate. This legacy that our ancestors before us went to vote, it's not only a privilege, but it's our right and we must do everything we can to protect it. An emotional night for so many in Mississippi. Back here in Washington, D.C., there has been a deadly shooting in the Logan Circle neighborhood, which has left at least one person dead and four injured. The suspected gunman entered a gym in an apartment complex and killed a man reportedly over a housing dispute. He then barricaded himself in his apartment and took his own life while surrounded by police. And that's because you're responsible for it. I think you're responsible for it. I think you're responsible for Thank you so much for watching. 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