Jensen Huang’s exit from Nvidia brings a chaotic week at the chip giant to a dramatic close. His resignation came less than a week after reports emerged that he had an extramarital relationship with a woman suspected of having ties to Chinese intelligence.
However, the circumstances surrounding Huang’s downfall began taking shape well before the affair became public. Alice Huang, who is not related to Jensen Huang, entered the technology industry’s orbit in 2023 after becoming managing director of Singapore-based data-center operator Megaspeed International.
Megaspeed said Thursday that it had complied with U.S. law and was preparing to acquire billions of dollars’ worth of Nvidia chips and servers. Over the past two years, Alice Huang—also known by her Chinese name, Huang Le—was photographed and filmed socializing with Jensen Huang. Their connection prompted questions in May from an investor who described the pair’s relationship as “uncomfortably close.”
Here is a timeline of the events leading to Jensen Huang’s unexpected resignation on Thursday.
November 2015
Alice Huang, a former television journalist in China, joins Shanghai Hexi Investment Management as deputy general manager, according to social media posts and records maintained by Simuwang, a Chinese private-equity database. Shanghai Hexi was founded by Kang Wei, who later became her husband, the Wall Street Journal reported.
March 2023
7Road International, a company incorporated in Singapore in 2015, changes its name to Megaspeed. Ownership of the “neocloud” business is transferred to Huang Le Ltd., an entity controlled by Alice Huang, who becomes its managing director.
June 2023
Shanghai Century Litong, a cloud-computing company, is established. A company tied to Alice’s sister, Huang Yu, holds a stake in the business.
October 2023
Nvidia names Shanghai Century Litong a preferred cloud partner, providing the Chinese company with priority access to Nvidia chips, according to The Information.
Around November 2023
Megaspeed’s shares are transferred to another Singapore company, Swiftdata. Alice Huang is no longer listed as a director, according to news outlet Caixin Global.
June 7, 2024
NetThunder, an information-technology company, publishes a social-media photo showing Alice Huang and Jensen Huang with other technology executives at a bar in Taipei, Taiwan.
End of 2024
Megaspeed’s assets surge from $33 million in 2023 to $3 billion in 2024, according to financial filings reviewed by Reuters.
Shipment records covering December 2024 through early 2026, analyzed by short seller Culper Research, indicate that Megaspeed’s Malaysian subsidiary, Speedmatrix, imported roughly $4 billion in products from a company that assembles equipment containing Nvidia chips.
Early 2025
Alice Huang and Kang Wei jointly promote a Southeast Asian data-center project to Chinese investors. They reportedly told prospective backers they had “no problem securing GPUs”—the graphics-processing units central to Nvidia’s business—and identified Alibaba as a customer, the Financial Times reported.
January 31, 2025
Jensen Huang meets President Trump at the White House, beginning a series of encounters between the two men during Trump’s second term.
February 2025
Singapore opens an investigation into Megaspeed and several other companies over suspected false declarations tied to server purchases and other alleged offenses, according to Bloomberg News.
May 22, 2025
Video captures Jensen Huang and Alice Huang together at a dinner at San Liu Shi Fu restaurant in Taipei, near the time of the Computex technology conference in Taiwan.
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July 2025
Jensen Huang says Nvidia has received approval from the Trump administration to sell its advanced H20 artificial-intelligence chips to China, reversing an earlier administration policy.
“It’s so innovative and dynamic here in China that it’s really important that American companies are able to compete and serve the market here in China,” Huang says.
That same month, Nvidia becomes the first publicly traded company to reach a $4 trillion valuation.
February 2026
Chinese authorities detain Kang Wei, Alice Huang’s husband and business partner, in connection with suspected stock manipulation, sources tell Caixin.
Singapore also bars Alice Huang from re-entering the country after she minimizes her role at Megaspeed during the investigation into the company’s operations, according to a Bloomberg News report.
May 12, 2026
Jensen Huang boards Air Force One in Alaska to join Mr. Trump for a two-day trip to Beijing.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefs Mr. Trump on the counterintelligence risk associated with Jensen Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, the New York Times reported. The briefing took place before Huang joined the trip and was the second time U.S. intelligence had warned Mr. Trump about the Nvidia chief’s relationship, according to the Times.
September 24, 2026
Jensen Huang attends Mr. Trump’s state dinner at the White House for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
September 29, 2026
Jensen Huang appears at an artificial-intelligence event at the White House, where he signs a set of voluntary AI safety standards amid growing demands for stronger safeguards around the technology.
November 8, 2026
Jensen Huang sends Nvidia employees a message acknowledging that he had an extramarital affair. On the same day, Nvidia’s board announces an independent investigation after reports that the chief executive had become the focus of a “foreign intelligence effort.”
The New York Times reports on Nov. 8 that U.S. government surveillance indicated Alice Huang was transmitting information directly to Beijing.
November 9, 2026
During an unscheduled White House news conference, Mr. Trump says he spoke with Jensen Huang, who told him he did not know about Alice Huang’s alleged connections to Chinese intelligence. Mr. Trump calls the Nvidia CEO an “honorable man” who is “definitely suffering.”
Mr. Trump declines to say when he first learned of the espionage allegations, responding only that it was “not too long ago” and that the information “didn’t make much of an impact on me.”
November 11, 2026
The New York Times reports that Jensen Huang also had an affair with Kimberly Powell, an Nvidia subordinate.
November 12, 2026
Nvidia’s board of directors announces that Jensen Huang has resigned from the company, effective immediately.
