Nvidia is preparing to oust co-founder and chief executive Jensen Huang after disclosures revealed he carried on an extramarital affair with an alleged Chinese intelligence operative who was introduced to him by her own husband.
The board's move marks a stunning reversal for the tech titan. Huang, the driving force behind the world's most valuable artificial intelligence chipmaker, now faces an abrupt reckoning as federal scrutiny intensifies over his ties to Beijing. The contact was not an accidental encounter. Chinese private equity investor Kang Wei—an acquaintance Huang had known for over a decade—deliberately orchestrated the introduction to his wife, Alice Huang, before looking the other way as the romantic relationship unfolded over roughly two years.
Kang did not hide the arrangement. He routinely introduced Alice to associates as Huang’s "personal secretary" in a half-joking cadence, flaunting her proximity to the pinnacle of American semiconductor power.
The relationship between the Nvidia founder and Kang took root in the 2010s. At the time, Nvidia operated primarily as a graphics processing unit manufacturer for desktop PC gaming rather than the linchpin of global artificial intelligence. Kang worked as a star private equity fund manager in mainland China hunting deals across the video game sector, while Alice pursued a media career.
Alice, now in her late 40s, had earned a master’s degree in media management from Hong Kong Baptist University in the late 2000s and worked as a television presenter in mainland China. She then pivoted sharply into high technology, embedding herself in commercial networks spanning data centres, cloud computing, and advanced silicon.
Kang and Alice turned access into capital. Corporate registry records show the couple took joint control of Shanghai Hexi—an investment firm Kang founded in 2010—by 2016. From that base, they engineered cross-border plays across China, Singapore, and Taiwan, shuttling equity between shell entities and capitalising on top-tier industry relationships.
Nvidia’s cutting-edge AI accelerators became their ultimate target.
| Case Entity / Individual | Profile & Operational Background | Known Regulatory & Legal Record |
|---|---|---|
| Jensen Huang | Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Nvidia | Faces board ouster and US Congressional probe |
| Alice Huang | Former Chinese state TV anchor; AI & chip executive | Suspected Beijing intelligence operative; co-director of Shanghai Hexi |
| Kang Wei | Chinese venture financier; founder of Shanghai Hexi | Fined 400,000 yuan ($60,000) for financial misconduct in 2018 |
| Shanghai Hexi | Investment vehicle co-directed by Kang and Alice Huang | Penalised 17.7 million yuan ($2.7 million) by Chinese securities regulators |
The couple carried substantial regulatory baggage long before Western security services took note. In 2018, the China Securities Regulatory Commission cracked down on Kang, fining him 400,000 yuan (approximately $60,000) for financial misconduct. Regulators slapped his flagship vehicle, Shanghai Hexi, with an additional 17.7 million yuan penalty, amounting to roughly $2.7 million.
Yet the penalties did little to stall their trajectory.
Over the past decade, Kang and Alice Huang hopscotched from one lucrative opportunity to the next — videogame companies, pharmaceutical takeovers and cloud computing — each time weaving a web of related entities, transferring stakes among themselves and capitalising on whatever connections were at hand.
The crisis will peak on Capitol Hill. The United States Congress is scheduled to formally open investigative hearings into Huang's foreign connections and the security integrity of Nvidia's intellectual property, leaving the chipmaker's board rushing to finalise transition leadership before lawmakers convene.