In brief
- An Nvidia shareholder has filed a proposed class action accusing the company and CEO Jensen Huang of concealing Huang's alleged ties to a suspected Chinese spy.
- The suit claims Nvidia's statements about Megaspeed and Huang's dealings with one of its executives were misleading and artificially inflated the company's share price.
- U.S. President Donald Trump said Huang told him he had "absolutely no idea" the woman was a spy, and that the FBI is looking into the matter.
Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang have been sued by a shareholder who accuses them of defrauding investors by concealing Huang's alleged relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.
The proposed class action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Monday, accuses Nvidia and Huang of making materially false and misleading statements about the company's dealings with Megaspeed, a Singapore-based Nvidia customer, according to the complaint. It alleges that Huang "had an affair with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive and suspected Chinese spy," and that the defendants failed to disclose that this raised national security concerns posing a material risk to Nvidia's reputation and business prospects.
The plaintiff, Mark Kistenmacher, seeks to represent investors who bought Nvidia stock between October 9, 2025, and November 8, 2026. The suit accuses Nvidia and Huang of violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5, and Huang of violating Section 20(a), which can hold executives liable alongside a company. It seeks unspecified damages and a jury trial. Kistenmacher is represented by The Rosen Law Firm.
The complaint targets four statements. Two came from Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo in October 2025, when he told The New York Times that Nvidia's employees had "found no evidence of diversion" at Megaspeed and that Huang's visits to customer events were routine. A third came from Rizzo last month, when he said Huang's interactions with Alice Huang were "not unusual or unexpected." The fourth was Huang's own description of Nvidia's dealings with Megaspeed as "normal and not unusual" in an interview with Bloomberg on October 30. Each was misleading, the suit alleges, because of Huang's relationship with Alice Huang.
Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive, is not related to Jensen Huang, Reuters reported. The New York Times reported on Sunday that Nvidia opened its investigation after Huang acknowledged to the company's board that he had been intimate with Alice Huang. The newspaper also reported that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw the drafting of a classified memo this spring warning top administration officials about the relationship, which was circulated ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's trip to China in May.
Decrypt has reached out to Nvidia for comment. The allegations in the complaint have not been tested in court, and it is common for shareholders to sue companies after sharp share price declines.
Huang under pressure
The lawsuit was filed five minutes after U.S. markets closed on Monday, according to Reuters. Nvidia shares closed down 4.3% at $178.67 that day, according to Yahoo Finance, reducing its market value by about $190 billion, after having slid as much as 8% earlier in the session. The stock was flat on the day at $179.70 in premarket trading on Tuesday.
Nvidia's board opened an independent investigation on Sunday into reports that Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, saying it had no reason to believe that national security or company secrets had been compromised. In an email to staff the same day, Huang apologized for being unfaithful to his wife, without naming the person involved.
The New York Times reported last month that U.S. officials had concluded Alice Huang was a Chinese intelligence asset, and the Financial Times later reported that a U.S. government memo said Jensen Huang had been romantically involved with her. China's embassy in Washington has dismissed the allegations as "groundless smears."
Trump weighed in on Monday. "I asked him about that and he said he had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy," the president told reporters, according to The Guardian. He added that the FBI was "looking into it in terms of something else," without elaborating. A day earlier, Trump told reporters he did not regret his decision not to act on the intelligence, and that he believed Huang should stay on as CEO. "I think he's an honorable guy," he said, according to the Times.
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