Trump reportedly urged Jensen Huang to fight for his Nvidia job days before he resigned amid an affair with a woman accused of spying for China
Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia’s CEO on Thursday after reports of multiple extramarital affairs, including one involving a woman suspected of working as a spy for the Chinese government. Ahead of that exit, President Donald Trump reportedly urged Huang to fight to keep his position, according to The New York Times, which cited two people briefed on the conversation.
Trump discussed the matter during an interview with sports commentator Stephen A. Smith on Thursday, saying he spoke with Jensen Huang on Wednesday and calling the situation “sad.” “I spoke to him yesterday. He’s going through hell. What he feels most badly about is his wife and family,” Trump said.
The timing of this departure is messy for the tech industry, as Nvidia has been at the center of the AI boom. The company has seen its market value slide, with shares dipping more than 13 percent over the past five days. This decline comes as national security concerns mount regarding Jensen Huang and his connection to the suspected Chinese spy.
Trump says it all comes down to whether she was really a spy
When Smith asked Trump whether he believed Jensen Huang should have left his role, the president said the answer depends on the status of the woman involved. “The big thing is, was the woman a spy? And I don’t know if that’s been determined yet,” Donald Trump told Smith. “If the woman was a spy, yes.”
Jensen Huang and Trump have maintained a close relationship as the AI sector has grown, with Nvidia chips becoming a critical resource. Late last year, Trump reversed his position and allowed Nvidia to sell its H200 chips to China, a move that gave the company a big win at the time.
The newspaper previously reported that Trump was warned multiple times that Jensen Huang was close to the suspected spy, yet he apparently still allowed the chip sales. Pressure is now building in Washington, as members of both parties call on Congress to investigate the relationship and pass new restrictions on Chinese access to advanced chips.
The Justice Department still hasn’t decided whether she was a spy
Trump’s uncertainty echoes Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said Thursday that the Justice Department had not concluded whether Alice Huang was a Chinese spy. However, US intelligence officials reportedly believed the Megaspeed executive was passing information to Beijing. China has denied that she is a spy.
The chip sales matter here, as US officials suspect Singapore-based Nvidia customer Megaspeed of helping route advanced chips into China. Trump’s H200 approval broke from earlier policy that kept China away from America’s most powerful AI hardware, and it gave the US government a 25 percent cut. However, the newer Blackwell chips stayed restricted.
Democrats opened a separate inquiry on Thursday into how the administration handled the H200 sales to China. Their letter alleges the arrangement amounted to an export tax, as the chips were shipped to the US and taxed before receiving a Commerce Department license.
Jensen Huang has agreed to testify before Republican-led congressional committees, and Nvidia is scheduled to report its third-quarter results on Tuesday under interim CEO Colette Kress.
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