US tech giant Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang sued following suspected Chinese spy scandal

Nvidia and its chief executive Jensen Huang are being sued following a suspected Chinese spy scandal that saw the US tech giant’s shares plunge.According to a complaint filed in federal court in San Jose, California on Monday, the defendants misled shareholders about Huang’s alleged affair with Alice Huang, a former executive of Singapore-based cloud computing firm Megaspeed. The proposed class action says that Nvidia and Huang did not disclose that the matter raised “national security concerns” and threatened Nvidia’s reputation and business prospects. Jensen Huang admitted to having an affair with Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, whom US intelligence reportedly suspects is a Chinese spy who has allegedly been feeding information to Beijing. Despite sharing the same last name, the two are not related.Jensen Huang has admitted being unfaithful to his wife and has apologized (PA)The 63-year-old, who heads a leading AI chipmaker and is an ally of President Donald Trump, apologized for being unfaithful to his wife and says that he takes “full responsibility” for his actions. However, he did not disclose the details of the alleged relationship.On Sunday, Nvidia announced in a press release that its board was opening an independent investigation “in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.”The company said that while its board had no reason to believe that either US national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, its inquiry would examine all available information.On Sunday, Trump said he had not spoken to Huang about the allegations (Reuters)News of the scandal saw Nvidia’s shares closed down 4.3 per cent on Monday, reducing Nvidia's ​market ⁠capitalisation by about $190 billion. The lawsuit was filed five minutes after the US stock market closed.It is common for shareholders to ⁠sue ​companies after unexpected share price declines. ​Nvidia shareholders led by Mark Kistenmacher are seeking unspecified damages from the defendants.When asked about Alice Huang being suspected of spying for China, Liu Chang, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told the Times that the US was pursuing a campaign of “groundless smears and slanders” against the Asian country.On Sunday, Trump said he had not spoken to Jensen Huang about the allegations but called him a fine person.Nvidia did not immediately respond to a comment request from Reuters.