In Defence of Jensen Huang

Jensen Huang told Nvidia's employees on 8 November that he had been unfaithful to his wife. "There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry," he wrote in a memo the company published. He took full responsibility, accepted "the criticism that comes with it" and asked that his family be given privacy.

He blamed nobody else. Since then, commentators, celebrities, influencers and politicians have lined up to pass judgement on a marriage none of them know anything about.

I know nothing about it either. Huang met his wife, Lori, at university, and they have been married for more than 40 years, ABC News reports. What happens inside a marriage of that length is known to two people. I will not sit in judgement on it, and I do not believe anyone else is in a position to.

What Huang has built

Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has run it ever since. In October 2025 Nvidia became the first company worth $5 trillion. Its shares closed at $207.04 on 29 October 2025, a market value of $5.03 trillion. In April 2025 the company said it planned to produce up to half a trillion dollars of AI infrastructure in the United States within four years. In my view, that record has done great things for Nvidia's shareholders, for the United States and for the world.

It was not built in office hours. Running a company of Nvidia's size for more than three decades means a life on aircraft, on stages, in customer meetings and at the office late into the night, year after year. Those hours went into building value for Nvidia's shareholders, and he has done that very well. None of that excuses an affair, and Huang has not offered it as an excuse. It is the life in which a man under heavy pressure made an error of judgement, and it should be weighed before anyone calls for his removal. He is not the first man to make that error, and he will not be the last.

The spy allegation is unproven

The woman named in the reports is an executive of Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that rents out computing power in Southeast Asian data centres. Megaspeed calls itself a "core business partner" of Nvidia's cloud business in the region. Megaspeed has faced scrutiny over allegations that Nvidia chips it bought were diverted to China. It denies wrongdoing and says inspections found no violations. The New York Times reported that US intelligence officials believe she is a Chinese intelligence asset.

That is a serious report, and it deserves a serious answer. It is not proof. The White House and the CIA declined to comment. Singapore's government says it has not investigated her alleged intelligence ties. China's foreign ministry calls the allegations "pure groundless speculation and slander", ABC News reports.

Nvidia's board has opened an independent investigation, overseen by a committee of independent directors with outside counsel. It says it "has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised" and "has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team", in its statement of 8 November.

Nationality is not evidence. Much of the commentary I have read this week treats her being Chinese as if it settled the question. It does not. Let the board's inquiry run, and judge on what it finds.

Selective outrage

The judgement being passed on Huang is harsh, unwarranted and selective. Actors and pop stars survive affairs and divorces every year, and they rarely face the judgement now aimed at a chief executive. The same culture that is scandalised by Huang watched OnlyFans become a career plan for young women and the pornography industry grow, with very little outrage. Over the past decade Western society has drifted towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and the moralisers were quiet. They have found their voice for one man's private failing, and I find most of them as offensive as anything they accuse him of.

In my view, much of this has less to do with morality than with AI. In the week the spy report appeared, Democrats came out of their midterm sweep calling to rein in the AI build-out. Senator Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with them, posted a call for a national moratorium on data centres. Senator Chris Coons is in line to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from January. He shared the New York Times report. In a post on X, CNBC reports, he wrote of "the insane relationship between the Trump Administration, Chinese spies, and AI billionaires" and pledged that "Congress will investigate and get answers". For anyone who already wants the AI build-out slowed, a scandal around the man whose chips power it is a gift, and much of the media has treated it as one.

The national security questions are fair, and both parties are asking them. The request for an 18 November briefing came from three Republican chairmen. President Trump says Huang has "done an amazing job for our country", CNBC reports. The briefing and the board's inquiry are the right places for those questions. The moral pile-on is a different matter.

Huang should stay

Nvidia says "Jensen is committed to continuing to lead NVIDIA as CEO without interruption", in a statement to CNBC. Joachim Klement of Panmure Liberum calls him "irreplaceable for America's AI leadership", CNBC reports. I agree with both. The board's inquiry opened on 8 November and, as of 9 November, had not reported. In my view, replacing the founder of the company at the centre of the AI economy over a private failing would do shareholders more harm than the affair.

The market has marked Nvidia down. Nvidia traded at $176.38 at 1:39 pm New York time on 9 November 2026, according to Yahoo Finance data. On 9 November 2026 that price was 5.5% below the 6 November close of $186.64.

The larger fall came first, before the affair was public. Nvidia closed down 9.3% on 5 November 2026, from $200.13 to $181.60. That day, CNBC reported, selling in AI stocks intensified as investors worried that Democratic wins would hit data centre construction. How much the affair itself costs the company is yet to be seen. I would not replace him over it.

The memes are funny, and some of them are very funny. Behind the jokes is a sad story: a man who has given his working life to his company, a family that has been hurt, and a private failure made public. He will answer to his wife, and that is between the two of them. The rest of us should wait for the facts.

What to watch

Nvidia reports third-quarter earnings on 17 November, CNBC reports, and the three House chairmen have asked Huang to brief them in private the next day. His reply to their request is due by 11 November.

Stocks mentioned: $NVDA (NASDAQ).

Shayne Heffernan, Ph.D., is the founder of the KnightsBridge Group (shayneheffernan.com).