Nvidia's independent directors have hired Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, with litigation partner Joon H. Kim, a former acting US attorney in Manhattan, leading an inquiry into reports that Chinese intelligence targeted the chief executive. A shareholder class action is already on file.
Nvidia's independent directors said on Tuesday that they had hired the New York law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct a "thorough and independent" investigation into reports that Chinese intelligence targeted chief executive Jensen Huang through an extramarital relationship, and that Wachtell attorney Joon H. Kim will lead it, The Korea Herald reports. The reports concern Huang's relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman and former executive of the Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed, who according to US intelligence agencies was gathering information for Beijing. Huang admitted on Sunday that he had been unfaithful to his wife of more than 40 years and apologised to his family and Nvidia employees.
Kim, 55, was acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York from March 2017 to January 2018, after joining the federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan in 2000. He co-led the 2021 independent investigation into sexual harassment allegations against then-New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned after its findings were released. Born in the United States to Korean parents and a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, he is now a litigation partner at Wachtell, handling internal investigations, white-collar criminal defence, regulatory matters and corporate crises.
The inquiry runs alongside litigation. A retail investor, Mark Kistenmacher, sued Nvidia and Huang on Monday in federal court in San Jose, California, seeking to represent investors who bought Nvidia shares between 9 October and 8 November, Courthouse News Service reports. The complaint says Nvidia's earlier statement that its compliance team had found Megaspeed was not diverting its purchases to China was "materially false and misleading", and pleads violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5, with a Section 20(a) claim against Huang. The plaintiff is represented by Laurence Rosen of The Rosen Law Firm.
The Taipei Times reports that President Donald Trump has said the FBI is investigating the affair, and that the New York Times reported Megaspeed bought more than US$4.8 billion of Nvidia chips over the past two years. Nvidia's shares fell 4.3 percent on Monday, wiping out about US$190 billion in market value.
