1 Year Ago, Jensen Huang Said, “China Is Going To Win The AI Race.” Now Nvidia’s Board Is Investigating His Relationship With An Alleged Chinese Intelligence Asset
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On Nov. 5, 2025, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) chief Jensen Huang told the Financial Times that “China is going to win the AI race.” A year later, Nvidia faces a different China story. On Nov. 8, 2026, its board announced an independent investigation of Huang. Independent directors are overseeing it with outside counsel. The probe follows reports linking him to a woman U.S. officials reportedly believe was a Chinese intelligence asset. The two events are unrelated. Side by side, they show how much of Nvidia’s story runs through Beijing.
Huang’s China Warning Came With a Caveat
Speaking on the sidelines of the FT’s Future of AI Summit, Huang cited Western “cynicism”, China’s lower energy costs and its lighter regulation, according to Fox Business. He also criticized new U.S. state AI rules. Reuters reported that he then posted on X that China is only “nanoseconds” behind and that America must race ahead and win developers worldwide. Taken together, the remarks made the case for changing U.S. policy.
A Year of Lobbying Washington on Chips
- May 2025: Huang called U.S. export controls a failure that pushed Chinese customers toward local alternatives. He said China’s AI-chip market could reach $50 billion within two to three years, per Yahoo Finance.
- Dec. 8, 2025: TechCrunch reported that President Trump said Commerce would let Nvidia ship advanced chips to approved Chinese customers, with the U.S. taking a 25% cut.
- February to April 2026: The U.S. granted an export license. In April, Huang said Nvidia’s China market share had fallen to zero.
- May 2026: According to Yahoo Finance, sales to about 10 Chinese companies were reportedly approved during Trump’s Beijing trip. Benzinga reported that Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Huang was on that trip lobbying.
- October 2026: In a Bloomberg interview, Huang said “we made a mistake,” apparently referring to U.S. limits on chip sales to China, per Yahoo Finance. He also called China a competitor and said it is no enemy.
What Huang’s China Push Delivered for Revenue
According to Motley Fool, customers headquartered in China, including Hong Kong, made up about 8% of Nvidia’s prior-quarter revenue, or about $7.9 billion. Most of that came from products that export restrictions don’t cover. Beijing has limited purchases. Nvidia took a $400 million charge on excess advanced-chip inventory, Motley Fool also reported. ByteDance and Tencent reportedly received roughly 10,000 units each over the summer, and each China-bound chip faces U.S. inspection plus a 25% tariff. For scale, Nvidia’s most recent full-year China revenue was $19.67 billion, per Yahoo Finance.
The rest of the business has more than made up for it. Nvidia’s fiscal Q2 2027 results showed revenue of $96.22B, up 105.8% year over year. Its Q3 guidance of $108.0B excludes any China data center computing revenue. Colette Kress, the company’s CFO, said, “Given ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, there is no China data center compute revenue in our forward outlook.”
Board Probe: Confirmed Facts and Allegations
CBS News reported that the board has no reason to believe company secrets or national security were compromised. Newsweek reported that Huang admitted in a staff message that he had been unfaithful, apologized and said he supports the review.
The rest remains allegation. Newsweek, citing the New York Times, reported that U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Alice Huang (no relation) was an alleged Chinese intelligence asset. She is a former Chinese TV reporter who later became a senior executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company and major Nvidia customer. China calls the claims “groundless speculation.” U.S. authorities suspect Megaspeed of helping China reach export-controlled chips, which Megaspeed denies. SF Standard reported that Megaspeed bought more than $4.8 billion of Nvidia chips over two years. Three Republican committee chairs in the House have requested a closed-door briefing from Huang on Nov. 18.
Trump Backs Huang as Shares Slide
CNBC reported that Trump said Huang should stay on as CEO and that the two spoke Monday. Newsweek, citing the Times, reported that U.S. intelligence briefed Trump on its findings in 2025 and that he chose not to act.
Nvidia closed at $178.67 Monday, down 4.27% from $186.64, after reaching $170.24 intraday, per Motley Fool. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) rose 2.37% and the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) gained 3.54%. Nvidia shares fell 22.07% over the past month amid a broader AI selloff. Newsweek linked the stock’s Nov. 5 drop to election concerns about data center construction. Market cap stands near $4.31 trillion, at a P/E of 36.
CBS reported that Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives said the situation could bring congressional inquiries and that Huang’s removal is a risk, depending on what the board finds. Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge said it could raise the likelihood of tighter U.S. chip export rules.
Key Dates for Nvidia Investors
Nvidia’s next earnings report is expected Nov. 17, though the company hasn’t confirmed the date. Next comes the requested Nov. 18 briefing, and any change to export rules would directly affect the China revenue Huang spent a year lobbying for. This article is not investment advice.
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AJ spent 10 years writing about financial markets at The Motley Fool. His coverage centers on technology stocks and the broader macroeconomic trends, from interest rates to geopolitics, that shape where markets are headed next. AJ is drawn to the stories where big-picture economics and individual companies collide.
