Jensen Huang's Allies Rally Around Unresolved Spy Question

The US Justice Department has reached "no conclusions" on whether Alice Huang was a Chinese spy — and Jensen Huang's allies are seizing on that uncertainty to argue Nvidia's board moved too fast in forcing out its cofounder.

Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters Thursday, hours after Huang resigned as Nvidia CEO, that he, the DOJ, and FBI Director Kash Patel had not determined who Alice Huang "is or is not." Blanche said the DOJ is investigating whether she acted as a Chinese spy.

"Your first question assumes something that I have never said and that I don't know to be true. So you assumed that DOJ learns that she is, in fact, a spy. I'm not — nobody said that. I certainly haven't said that," Blanche said in response to a reporter's question about Huang.

Huang resigned Thursday after reports emerged that he had an affair with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive, and that some US officials had concluded she was a Chinese intelligence asset gathering information for Beijing. China has repeatedly denied the spying allegations.

What does the uncertainty change for Huang's comeback chances?

A CNN report published Thursday, citing multiple unnamed sources, said intelligence gathered so far does not prove Alice Huang acted as a spy for the Chinese government, and that US officials are divided over the strength of the evidence tying her to Chinese intelligence.

That ambiguity has energized Huang's supporters. Elon Musk said Friday on X that a petition to reinstate Huang as Nvidia CEO was "underway" and "I'm signing it too."

Tech investor Gavin Baker, managing partner of Atreides Management, said on X that Nvidia's board "should have waited for their own investigation to finish" before ousting Huang after he admitted the affair.

"Shareholders, employees and partners overwhelmingly support Jensen," Baker wrote. In a separate post, he suggested Huang could be rehired.

Venture capitalist David Sacks, Trump's former AI czar, argued on X that the "spy narrative is collapsing already." Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said the uncertainty over the spying allegations raises "serious corporate governance issues."

President Donald Trump weighed in too. Asked by ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith whether Huang should have resigned, Trump said: "The big thing is, was the woman a spy? And I don't know if that's been determined yet. But if the woman was a spy, yes. If the woman was not a spy, perhaps it would be different."

Inside Nvidia, some employees want the board to reverse course. Wired reported that an internal "suggestion box" post drew more than 1,600 comments, including calls to restore Huang as CEO.

The counterargument: it wasn't just one affair

The defense isn't universal. CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Kramer pointed to reports that Huang had two other extramarital relationships with Nvidia employees, including one with the company's vice president of healthcare, who was his direct report.

"How venal, how disgusting are some that they are willing to look away from a ceo who is having a relationship with a subordinate simply because he is brilliant or a money-maker," Kramer wrote on X Friday. "No one was a bigger defender of Jensen than I was but there are rules about sex with subordinates. Just because someone is brilliant doesn't mean he can do what he wants."

Megaspeed remains under the microscope

The scrutiny extends to Megaspeed, the Singapore-based data center company where Alice Huang was a top executive. The company has drawn US scrutiny over allegations it helped divert restricted Nvidia chips to Chinese customers. Megaspeed has denied any wrongdoing.

Singapore conducted its own investigation into Megaspeed — which did not examine potential espionage — and briefly impounded Alice Huang's passport during the probe. Singapore also barred her from re-entering the country after the government said she provided inaccurate information to police to downplay her role at Megaspeed.

Bloomberg reported Friday that a Chinese company founded by Alice Huang obtained smuggled AI chips that were then installed at a Shanghai data center connected to Megaspeed.

For Nvidia watchers, the practical question is straightforward: if federal investigators conclude Alice Huang was never a spy, the board's governance case narrows to Huang's workplace relationships alone — and the pressure to bring back the cofounder only grows.