Trump says FBI investigates Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang over alleged Chinese spy affair

Donald Trump said the FBI is investigating Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang over an affair with a Chinese businesswoman alleged to be a spy for Beijing, sending shares in the world's most valuable chipmaker down more than 4 per cent. "I know the FBI is looking into it," the president told reporters, adding that he had spoken to Huang, who said he had no idea the woman was a spy, and that "I think that he'll be in good shape."

Nvidia's board launched its own internal investigation into whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort, the probe was announced on Sunday, and the company says the board has confidence in him. The 63-year-old co-founder, who owns roughly 3.6 per cent of the company and runs it through an unusually flat structure in which dozens of executives report directly to him, has no dual-class shares protecting him — unlike Zuckerberg's Meta or Musk's SpaceX. Most analysts do not expect the investigation to force out the man many on Wall Street consider the linchpin of the entire AI trade.

The timing is difficult to ignore. Trump was briefed on the relationship and on the allegation that the woman was passing information to the Chinese government, the New York Times reported, and chose not to act on it. Weeks later he awarded Huang the nation's highest honor for scientific achievement — and disclosed on the same day that he had personally bought and sold Nvidia shares over the summer. Huang's closeness to Trump has coincided with several favorable policy decisions for the company.

A week earlier, the same president ordered the justice department to investigate Democratic members of Congress, two days after voters removed his majorities in both chambers. Beijing's foreign ministry called the spy narrative "a purely groundless accusation, slander, and a smear." No evidence beyond the word "suspected" has been presented publicly.

Whether the probe is leverage in the chip war with China or a personal vendetta, the signal to the business community is the same: the man who controls the supply of the world's AI chips now depends on a licence that can be revoked. Trump's own assessment of the affair — that Huang was "amazed" and would "be in good shape" — came from the same mouth that ordered the investigation.