A group of technology executives were preparing to raise glasses of whiskey at a Taipei gathering when one woman interrupted to say she might be able to bring Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to the party.
Within minutes, the man behind one of the world’s most valuable companies was standing beside her.
Wearing his signature motorcycle jacket and Oakley Tie Bar glasses, Jensen smiled as he took a seat next to the unidentified woman in a pink sleeveless dress. Alice Huang, who is not related to him, listened as the 63-year-old executive spoke with some of his most important Asian customers.
Tripp Mickle, the New York Times reporter who first detailed the relationship between Jensen and Alice, told The Daily that the setting was significant. “This is in Taipei. This is where he is a rockstar among rockstars and this is the industry that he is building and leading,” Mickle said. “To be able to, in moments, summon the most important figure in the industry really catches people’s attention.”
At first glance, Alice appeared to be another member of the group. Her long hair was swept to one side, while pearl earrings matched the necklace resting across her chest. A senior executive at Megaspeed, she oversaw the daily operations of the Singapore-based data-center company, which was expected to purchase $2 billion worth of Nvidia’s AI technology over the following year.
US intelligence officials now reportedly suspect that Alice was recruited as a Chinese spy to pass information about Jensen to Beijing. She had also been involved in an affair with Jensen, who later apologized for being “unfaithful” to his wife of more than four decades.
After the espionage allegations became public late last month, Jensen could no longer keep his dealings with Megaspeed or his relationship with Alice out of the spotlight. Reports of another alleged affair soon followed, along with news of his resignation from Nvidia.
Jensen’s sudden and dramatic fall has raised questions about the future of his billion-dollar fortune, his 3.58 percent Nvidia stake and whether his wife, 65-year-old Lori Huang, could receive a divorce settlement larger than those awarded to MacKenzie Bezos or Melinda Gates.
Wearing his trademark motorcycle jacket and Oakley Tie Bar glasses, Jensen Huang smiles beside a mysterious woman in pink
US intelligence officials reportedly suspect that Alice Huang, who was having an affair with Jensen Huang, was recruited as a Chinese spy to send information to Beijing
After the affair became public, Jensen apologized for being “unfaithful” to his wife of more than 40 years
“There’s just so much money,” Nancy Chemtob, a divorce lawyer who represents high-net-worth clients, told Our News Outlet.
Chemtob has not been contacted by Jensen or Lori and is not involved in any legal matter concerning them. Drawing on three decades of experience with other clients, however, she said affairs can sometimes lead to bitter breakups.
“If she were my client, she would get divorced because this is New York Times front-page embarrassing,” Chemtob said.
For now, there is no confirmation that the couple is even considering divorce.
In a statement issued Sunday, Jensen wrote: “To my wife and family: I love you. I know an apology cannot undo what I have done. I hope our family will heal and that, over time, I can earn back your trust.”
The situation worsened Wednesday when reports emerged of another alleged affair, this time involving Kimberly Powell, a 43-year-old Nvidia executive who reported directly to Jensen. The pair were reportedly recorded showing affection at an Nvidia conference in March. Powell, the company’s vice president of health care, is married to technology executive Graham Gerade.
Jensen resigned Thursday morning.
“Jensen’s contributions to Nvidia are profound. Nvidia is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world. The Board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry,” Nvidia said in a statement announcing his departure.
Reuters later reported that Jensen had allegedly been involved with a third, unnamed Nvidia employee.
Neither Jensen nor Powell has commented on the allegations.
The reports mark a stunning turn for Jensen, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem.
By then, Jensen had already been married for eight years.
Lori Mills met Jensen in a freshman electrical engineering class at Oregon State University in the early 1980s. After spending six months trying to impress his lab partner with his “strong capability to complete homework,” Jensen finally found the confidence to ask her out.
Reports of another alleged affair involving Kimberly Powell, a 43-year-old Nvidia executive who reported directly to Jensen, surfaced Wednesday
Lori Mills met Jensen in a freshman electrical engineering class at Oregon State University in the early 1980s. They married in 1985
After graduating, the college sweethearts moved to Silicon Valley and began careers designing microchips. They married in 1985. Within a few years, Lori left the workforce to raise their two children: son Spencer, now 36, and daughter Madison, now 35.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, Nvidia was best known for producing chips that enhanced 3D graphics in video games. The artificial-intelligence boom that began in 2022 revealed a far more lucrative use for the company’s technology: Nvidia chips were essential to running AI systems. The company quickly became a supplier at the center of the new gold rush.
Nvidia became the first company to reach a $5 trillion valuation last year. As of Wednesday afternoon, Forbes estimated Jensen’s net worth at $153.6 billion, placing the 63-year-old 11th on its list of the world’s richest people.
It is unclear whether Jensen and Lori signed a prenuptial agreement. They married at 22 and 24, eight years before Nvidia was founded, and neither has publicly discussed a prenup. Legal experts told Our News Outlet that it would not be surprising if no agreement existed.
When Chemtob entered family law more than 30 years ago, “prenups and postnups were not really a thing.”
“In those days, even though it’s not so long ago, people didn’t really button things up,” said Chemtob, whose celebrity clients have included Mary-Kate Olsen, Tory Burch and Bobby Flay.
“When I started, we would go to divorce court. Now, people are hiring retired judges and mediators.”
Without a prenup, divorce attorney Raiford Dalton Palmer told Our News Outlet that “there’s really no legal way for Jensen to have protected his assets once he began accumulating his wealth.”
Palmer, who has not been approached about and is not handling any matter involving Jensen or Lori, said putting assets into trusts, LLCs or other business entities would not necessarily prevent them from being divided in divorce proceedings.
In a Sunday statement, Jensen wrote: “To my wife and family: I love you. I know an apology cannot undo what I have done. I hope our family will heal and that, over time, I can earn back your trust”
“In California, all assets during marriage are presumed to be community property,” Palmer said.
California is one of nine states with mandatory community-property rules, under which spouses generally share ownership of income and assets acquired during a marriage. Based on those rules, Chemtob estimated that Lori could receive approximately $75 billion if the couple divorced.
Chemtob said such an outcome could be justified because Lori “enabled him to be who he became.”
As recently as May, Jensen publicly said that his wife had “been part of Nvidia every step of the way.”
“She’s been to every conference, every speech, you know, and every moment of Nvidia, she was there,” Jensen told Singapore-based news channel CNA.
The couple established the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation in 2007.
Lori is the foundation’s president and oversees its 69 million Nvidia shares and reported $9.1 billion in net assets. Jensen serves as secretary and chief financial officer. The foundation has made several major donations, including $75 million toward Vanderbilt University’s expansion in San Francisco and $50 million to Oregon State University, the couple’s alma mater.
However, Palmer said those foundation assets, along with an irrevocable trust created by the couple in 2012 and trusts established for their children in 2016, are likely to remain outside the marital estate if Jensen and Lori separate. The arrangements have been detailed in Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
The couple may also have signed a postnuptial agreement, although that is not known. Palmer said they could technically create one now, but it would not necessarily provide a simple solution because negotiating it would be much like reaching a complete divorce settlement.
Despite the potential for conflict, particularly when infidelity is involved, experts said a divorce between the Huangs would probably remain largely private.
Child custody would not be a concern because Spencer and Madison are both adults. Both work for their father: Spencer is Nvidia’s director of product management for robotics, while Madison is the company’s senior director of product and technical marketing.
Jensen and Lori established the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation in 2007, with Lori serving as president
Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, is married to technology executive Graham Gerade
After the espionage allegations became public late last month, Huang’s dealings with Alice were exposed and began playing out publicly
Experts said a potential Huang divorce is unlikely to become a public spectacle, even with alleged affairs involved
If the couple does separate, Palmer predicted the process would be “as quiet and as fast as possible.”
“I do not see this being dragged out,” Palmer said. “My best estimate is that this will be very private and handled as efficiently as possible.”
“Too much is at stake for both Jensen and Lori for an ugly spectacle. Divorce filings in cases like these are typically made after the matter is settled, and little private information is revealed in the public record.”
Jensen’s statement suggested that he may hope to repair his marriage.
In an email sent to Nvidia employees Sunday, he apologized for violating his marriage and said he hoped to “earn back” Lori’s trust.
“My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did,” Jensen wrote. “Throughout my life, my family has given me love and support. They deserve my honesty and loyalty. Instead, I let them down and damaged the life we built together.”
Nvidia said Sunday that its board was “initiating an independent investigation in light of recent reports that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.”
“A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, will oversee the investigation. The Board prioritizes U.S. national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders.
“While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information. Jensen fully supports the review and has committed to cooperating with it. The Board has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team and will provide further updates as appropriate.”
Palmer said he was not a couples counselor and had no firsthand knowledge of the Huangs’ relationship, but his clients had shown him how difficult affairs can be to overcome.
“There’s a fundamental breach of trust between the couple, and people find it very hard to get the ‘magic’ back,” he said, reflecting on previous cases.
Alice was reportedly introduced to Jensen by her husband, Kang Wei, a Chinese businessman who had known the Nvidia chief for about a decade. The Wall Street Journal reported that people close to Kang said he accepted the relationship and would often joke that Alice was Jensen’s personal assistant.
Reports also said Alice’s social-media accounts contained numerous photographs of her with Jensen, including images of the pair golfing in San Jose, drinking wine in Shanghai, dining with friends in Taiwan and visiting Nvidia’s headquarters in San Francisco.
Jensen resigned on Thursday morning
Parker Schmitt, the technology executive who took the late-night 2024 photograph of Jensen and Alice, told the New York Times that each image was “a point of pride” for Alice, who wanted to be recognized as a skilled sales executive.
Lori would not need those photographs to pursue a divorce. California is a no-fault state, meaning spouses can end a marriage without proving that the other person committed wrongdoing.
The existence of a second alleged affair would therefore have little effect on a potential divorce between Lori and Jensen.
“An affair or multiple affairs are a reason to get divorced but don’t improve Lori’s chances of success in a divorce, help her get more of the assets, or more spousal support,” Palmer said.
“Most affairs don’t change the case outcome.”
Lori Huang has not publicly commented on the allegations.
Our News Outlet has contacted Jensen and Lori Huang for comment.
Since the affair allegations expanded into a wider investigation, Alice has vanished from public view, and her current whereabouts are unknown. President Donald Trump has said the FBI is investigating the matter.
Taiwanese officials have revoked Alice’s entry permit and barred her from returning, citing inquiries into whether her visits involved intelligence gathering. She was detained by Singapore authorities last summer, and Singapore continues to investigate Megaspeed, though not Alice’s alleged links to China.
People familiar with the couple said Alice’s husband was also detained in Shanghai earlier this year but has since been released.
Without naming Alice, Jensen addressed the national-security concerns in his Sunday statement to Nvidia, saying the board had opened an independent investigation into the matter.
An Nvidia spokesperson said Sunday: “We trust that if we were the target of a genuine threat, the U.S. government would have notified us.”
Our News Outlet has contacted Nvidia for further comment.
