Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had been working with the crisis-management PR firm Heller for about a year before he admitted to an extramarital affair, it has emerged. Heller is known for handling sex scandals.
The New York Times (NYT) and the US tech outlet Wired, among others, reported this on the 11th (local time). The collaboration between Huang and Heller began no later than October last year.
In March this year, Huang's security team reportedly met separately with a witness and proposed a nondisclosure agreement (NDA). The witness is the person who filmed Huang and Kimberly Powell, vice president of healthcare, showing affection toward each other. Powell reports directly to Huang.
Citing two sources, Wired disclosed the contents of an internal directive on the 9th. According to the report, at the end of October last year Nvidia's public relations department was instructed to copy Heller on any press inquiry concerning Huang, whether it involved a personal or a business matter.
The directive came right after the NYT raised questions about whether Nvidia was helping Chinese companies circumvent US semiconductor export controls.
According to the NYT report at the time, MegaSpeed, a Singapore data center company with ties to China, bought Nvidia chips worth nearly $2.0 billion (about 2.675 trillion won). The report also featured a scene in which Alice Huang, introduced as MegaSpeed's CEO at an Nvidia customer event in Taipei, Taiwan, stood next to Huang.
Wired reported that Heller originally handled matters in Huang's personal sphere, such as his family's charitable activities. Heller's side was in frequent contact with Huang and with his daughter Madison, a director of product marketing at Nvidia. It is unclear whether the early work was related to the affair.
When Wired inquired, Heller's side replied that it should check with Nvidia. There was no immediate response from Nvidia.
Lisa Heller, who founded Heller, previously worked as New York regional spokesperson under Senator Chuck Schumer. She is known for helping prominent figures embroiled in personal scandals or sex scandals. According to New York Magazine in 2023, figures such as former Rep. Anthony Weiner, star chef Mario Batali and former New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin sought Heller's advice. Weiner resigned over a sexting scandal, Batali faced sexual misconduct allegations, and Toobin drew controversy for an indecent act during a video conference.
Huang sent an email to employees on the 8th to apologize. "I was not faithful to my wife. My actions hurt my wife and children. There is no excuse," he wrote. He did not name the other person as Alice Huang, saying only that she was a former MegaSpeed executive. Nvidia had until then explained that the two people's meetings were routine business with a customer.
Nvidia's board began an independent inquiry the same day. The move followed reports that Huang had "been targeted by a foreign intelligence agency operation." According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report on the 11th, the board is preparing a plan to dismiss Huang.