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Republican senator Kevin Cramer says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang ‘has got to go’ amid China spy probe: Report
Kevin Cramer urged Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to resign, citing potential extortion risks linked to Huang’s alleged relationship with a Chinese businesswoman.
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Republican US Senator Kevin Cramer has called for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to step down, citing concerns over the potential risks posed by his alleged links to a Chinese businesswoman suspected of spying for Beijing.
Cramer, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, made the remarks in an interview with Politico late Tuesday, saying the potential for extortion was too significant to overlook.
"The potential for extortion is so tremendous that something as sensitive as Nvidia chips, I just think he's got to go," Cramer told the publication.
Deep Dive
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was looking into Huang's affair with a Chinese businesswoman alleged to be a spy for Beijing, US President Donald Trump said on Monday.
Meanwhile, Nvidia's independent board members on Tuesday appointed former acting US Attorney Joon H Kim and his law firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, to lead an investigation into Huang's relationship with the suspected Chinese spy.
The announcement came in a brief statement, days after the company said it had launched an internal probe into reports that Huang had been targeted as part of a foreign intelligence operation.
The controversy surrounding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang began on November 7, when the Financial Times reported that the US government believed he had been involved with a woman allegedly recruited by China’s main intelligence agency to spy for Beijing.
The report named the woman as Alice Huang, an executive at Asian technology firm Megaspeed International.
Days later, Huang acknowledged having an affair in an email to Nvidia employees. “I was unfaithful to my wife,” Jensen Huang wrote. “My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry."
Who is leading the Nvidia probe?
According to a Bloomberg report, Kim previously served as the top deputy to former Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara and later took over as Manhattan's top federal prosecutor before leaving office in 2018.
An ex-federal attorney for the Southern District of New York, Kim has been tasked with conducting a "thorough and independent investigation", Nvidia's board members said.
The veteran prosecutor has been involved in several high-profile legal cases, including the insider-trading investigation involving SAC Capital, the hedge fund once run by billionaire Steven A Cohen. The firm pleaded guilty in 2013 and agreed to pay a $1.8 billion penalty.
