Jeffrey Sonnenfeld puts Jensen Huang’s job odds at 50-50

Nvidia announced Sunday that it had opened an independent investigation after Huang told staff he had been unfaithful to his wife. The person involved, Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, is believed by U.S. officials to be a Chinese spy who passed information to Beijing. No one has been charged. China’s embassy in Washington called the allegations “groundless smears and slanders” in late October.

U.S. intelligence officials reportedly briefed President Donald Trump about their concerns a year ago. The New York Times reported that senior Trump administration officials doubted Jensen Huang could have remained unaware of Alice Huang’s alleged intelligence-gathering role. When Trump was first briefed, officials did not believe Huang knew; it is unclear whether that assessment has changed. Nvidia’s board says it has found no indication that national security or company secrets were compromised.

Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at Yale School of Management, described the episode as “remarkably poor judgment.” Huang had been “revered and trusted by everybody in technology,” he said, adding that any other Nvidia employee would be fired for similar conduct. Huang’s long record at the company, which he co-founded in 1993, may give him some latitude if he can show he was deceived. But Sonnenfeld said that goodwill can run out when a mistake appears self-serving or violates core rules.

There are few clear precedents or obvious successors. Former HP chief Mark Hurd left after inaccurate expense reports concealed a personal relationship with a contractor, then joined Oracle about a month later. Huang, by contrast, has no equivalent role elsewhere to move to. Nvidia’s relatively flat structure includes about 60 direct reports, by Huang’s account, making an internal succession plan hard to identify. Sonnenfeld floated former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as a possible outside choice, while noting that boards in crisis can seek a “messianic solution.”

The board’s review will include what technology, if any, reached China and through what channels, including Nvidia’s relationship with Megaspeed. The Singapore cloud company, which grew out of a Chinese gaming business and became Nvidia’s largest buyer in Southeast Asia, purchased roughly $2 billion in Nvidia chips, the Times reported in October 2025. The report raised questions about possible re-exports or remote rentals to Chinese customers. An Nvidia spokesperson told The Hill the allegations had been “thoroughly investigated and debunked last year.”

Nvidia is a major chip supplier and investor across the AI sector, including in OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, CoreWeave and Nebius. In August, it signed preliminary agreements with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR to mobilize more than $500 billion over time. Huang has said Nvidia could backstop up to a quarter of that amount, making a leadership crisis at the company a concern for its many partners.

Huang is expected to continue running Nvidia during the investigation. Three House chairmen want a closed-door briefing from him on November 18, a day after the company reports its latest earnings. Sonnenfeld expects Huang may have to give up some day-to-day decisions even if he retains the title. He also said Huang’s support for selling advanced chips to China had already caused concern; Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei compared such sales to “selling nuclear weapons to North Korea” at Davos in January.

The controversy could also intensify scrutiny of security practices across the technology industry. Sonnenfeld said tech companies have been “way too lax” compared with defense contractors. A recent OpenAI engineer arrest, involving an accusation that he hid a recording device behind a television in an executive conference room, has raised similar concerns. OpenAI said it had no indication that model weights, source code or customer data were accessed.

Sonnenfeld hopes Nvidia’s board clears Huang of knowingly aiding anyone. The company’s employees, customers and partners will still have to decide whether they trust the judgment of a CEO whose company sits at the center of the AI economy. Huang does not have super-voting shares that would make his removal harder, a point Sonnenfeld said could matter if the board concludes he cannot stay.