A group of tech executives were getting ready to toast whiskey at a party in Taipei when one of them interrupted to say she could probably get Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to join them.
Within minutes, the man behind the world’s most valuable company appeared by her side.
Clad in his distinctive motorcycle jacket and Oakley Tie Bar glasses, Jensen smiled as he sat next to the mysterious woman in a pink, sleeveless dress. With her long hair swept to one side, Alice Huang, no relation, looked on as she listened to Jensen, 63, talk to some of his most important Asian customers.
Tripp Mickle, the New York Times reporter who first reported the relationship between Jensen and Alice, stressed the significance of having the Taiwan-born Jensen at a tech meetup in his home country, telling The Daily: ‘This is in Taipei. This is where he is a rockstar among rockstars and this is the industry that he is building and leading. To be able to, in moments, summon the most important figure in the industry really catches people’s attention.’
From first glance, it seemed like Alice, whose lobes were adorned with a pair of pearl earrings that matched the necklace draped across her chest, was among them. A senior executive at Megaspeed, she controlled the day-to-day operations of the Singapore-based data center company that was poised to buy $2 billion of AI technology from Nvidia over the next year.
But US intelligence services now believe Alice was a suspected Chinese spy recruited to funnel information on Jensen to Beijing. She had been having an affair with Jensen, who has since apologized for being ‘unfaithful’ to his wife of more than 40 years.
As the espionage allegations became public late last month, Jensen could no longer keep his dealings with Megaspeed and interactions with Alice under wraps, all of which are now playing out in the public eye. And then came news of another alleged affair with a colleague and then his official resignation from Nvidia.
Jensen’s quick and dramatic downfall has left many wondering what’s to become of his billion-dollar fortune and his 3.58 percent stake in Nvidia – and whether his wife Lori Huang, 65, could receive a divorce payout even bigger than MacKenzie Bezos or Melinda Gates.
Clad in his distinctive motorcycle jacket and Oakley Tie Bar glasses, Jensen Huang smiles as he sits next to a mysterious woman in pink
US intelligence services believe Alice Huang, who was having an affair, was a suspected Chinese spy recruited to funnel information on Jensen Huang to Beijing
When the news of the affair broke, Jensen apologized for being ‘unfaithful’ to his wife of more than 40 years
‘There’s just so much money,’ Nancy Chemtob, a divorce attorney specializing in high-net worth clients told the Daily Mail.
Chemtob has not been approached nor is working on any legal matters involving Jensen or Lori, but based on her 30 years of experience with other clients, sometimes affairs have ugly endings.
‘If she were my client, she would get divorced because this is New York Times front page embarrassing,’ she said.
So far, it is merely speculative that a divorce is even being considered.
Jensen said in a Sunday statement: ‘To my wife and family: I love you. I know an apology cannot undo what I have done. I hope our family will heal and that, over time, I can earn back your trust.’
Things only got worse for Jensen on Wednesday, when news of another supposed affair – this time with Kimberly Powell, a 43-year-old Nvidia executive who reported directly to the CEO – broke. The two were reportedly captured on video being affectionate during an Nvidia conference in March. Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, is married to tech executive Graham Gerade.
On Thursday morning, Jensen resigned.
‘Jensen’s contributions to Nvidia are profound. Nvidia is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world. The Board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry,’ the company wrote in a press release announcing his resignation.
Later on Thursday, Reuters reported that Jensen allegedly had a third affair with a second, anonymous Nvidia employee.
Neither Jensen nor Powell have issued a comment on either allegation.
It’s a surprising end for Jensen, who along with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, had cofounded Nvidia in 1993.
By that time, Jensen had been married for eight years.
Lori Mills first met Jensen in a freshman electrical engineering class at Oregon State University during the early 1980s. After spending six months trying to impress his lab partner with his ‘strong capability to complete homework,’ Jensen worked up the courage to ask her out, and so their love story began.
News of another affair – this one with Kimberly Powell, a 43-year-old Nvidia executive who reported directly to Nvidia CEO Jensen surfaced on Wednesday
Lori Mills first met Jensen in a freshman electrical engineering class at Oregon State University during the early 1980s. The couple married in 1985
After graduation, the college sweethearts moved to Silicon Valley, where both began working as microchip designers. They got married in 1985 and within a few years, Lori had left the workforce to raise their two kids, son Spencer, now 36, and daughter Madison, now 35.
For much of the 90s and early 2000s, the company was primarily known for building chips that accelerated 3D graphics in video games. But when the AI boom came in 2022, Silicon Valley realized those chips had a more lucrative purpose: Nvidia’s chips were needed to run its AI technology. Overnight, the company became the ‘shovel sellers’ of the new gold rush.
The chipmaker became the first company to ever be valued at $5 trillion last year, and as of Wednesday afternoon, Forbes estimates Jensen’s net worth to be $153.6 billion, making the 63-year-old the 11th richest person in the world.
It’s unclear whether Jensen and Lori signed a prenuptial agreement before tying the knot but having married at 22 and 24 – eight years before Nvidia was founded – and they have not made any public statements about prenups. However, experts speculated to the Daily Mail that it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if there wasn’t one in place.
When Chemtob first began practicing family law more than 30 years ago, ‘Prenups and postnups were not really a thing.’
‘In those days, even though it’s not so long ago, people didn’t really button things up,’ Chemtob, whose celebrity clients include Mary-Kate Olsen, Tory Burch and Bobby Flay, said.
‘When I started, we would go to divorce court. Now, people are hiring retired judges and mediators.’
Without a prenup, however, divorce attorney Raiford Dalton Palmer suggested to the Daily Mail that ‘there’s really no legal way for Jensen to have protected his assets once he began accumulating his wealth.’
‘Placing assets in trusts, business organizations like LLCs, and so on would not shield those assets from division in a divorce case,’ Palmer, who is not working on or been approached for any matters related to Jensen or Lori, said.
On Sunday, Jensen issued the following statement: ‘To my wife and family: I love you. I know an apology cannot undo what I have done. I hope our family will heal and that, over time, I can earn back your trust’
‘In California, all assets created or acquired during marriage are presumed to be community property.’
California is one of nine states that operate under a mandatory community property law, where spouses automatically own half of all income and assets incurred during the marriage. Under those rules, Chemtob estimates that Lori could walk away with roughly $75 billion should they choose to divorce.
Chemtob believes this would only be fair since ‘she enabled him to be who he became.’
As recently as May, Jensen has publicly stated his wife has ‘been part of Nvidia every step of the way.’
‘She’s been to every conference, every speech, you know, and every moment of Nvidia, she was there,’ Jensen told Singapore-based news channel CNA in an interview.
Together, the couple created the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation in 2007.
Lori serves as the president, overseeing its 69 million shares of Nvidia stock and reported $9.1 billion in net assets. Jensen serves as the secretary and chief financial officer. The family foundation has made several large contributions, including a $75 million donation to Vanderbilt University’s expansion in San Francisco and a $50 million donation to the couple’s alma mater Oregon State University.
But these trust assets, as well as the irrevocable trust that the couple set up in 2012 and the trusts that they created for their children in 2016 that have been detailed in filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission, will likely be excluded from their marital estate if the couple ends up separating, Palmer said.
There’s a chance Jensen and Lori could have signed a post-nuptial agreement after getting married, but that is unknown. Palmer said they technically still could sign one, but having one doesn’t necessarily mean ‘an easy fix,’ because it would be essentially the same as negotiating a full divorce settlement.
Although divorces can be messy, especially when there’s an affair, a potential Huang divorce is unlikely to spill out into public view, experts said.
Custody, for one, won’t be an issue since both Spencer, 36, and Madison, 35, are adults. Both of their children are currently employed by their father. Spencer works as Nvidia’s director of product management for robotics, while Madison works as Nvidia’s senior director of product and technical marketing.
In 2007, Jensen and Lori created the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation. Lori serves as the president
Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, is married to tech executive Graham Gerade
As the espionage allegations became public late last month, Huang could no longer keep his interactions with Alice under wraps, all of which is now playing out in the public eye
Although divorces can be messy, especially when there’s an affair, a potential Huang divorce is unlikely to spill out into public view, experts said
If the couple does decide to split, Palmer suggested it will likely be as ‘quiet and as fast as possible.’
‘I do not see this being dragged out,’ Palmer said. ‘My best estimate is that this will be very private and handled as efficiently as possible.’
‘Too much is at stake for both Jensen and Lori for an ugly spectacle. Divorce fillings in cases like these are typically done after the case is settled, and little private information is revealed in the public record.’
Jensen, for his part, seems like he’d be open to reconciling with his wife judging by his statement.
In a Sunday email sent to the company, he apologized for stepping out of his marriage and expressed hope that he could ‘earn back’ Lori’s trust.
‘My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did,’ Jensen wrote. ‘Throughout my life, my family has given me love and support. They deserve my honesty and loyalty. Instead, I let them down and damaged the life we built together.’
In a Sunday statement, Nvidia said its board is ‘initiating an independent investigation in light of recent reports that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.’
‘A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, will oversee the investigation. The Board prioritizes U.S. national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders.
‘While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information. Jensen fully supports the review and has committed to cooperating with it. The Board has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team and will provide further updates as appropriate.’
While Palmer is no couples counselor, nor is he familiar with the Huangs’ relationship, he said he’s seen through his clients just how difficult affairs can be to overcome.
‘There’s a fundamental breach of trust between the couple, and people find it very hard to get the “magic” back,’ he said of past clients.
Alice was reportedly introduced to Jensen by her own husband Kang Wei, a Chinese businessman who had known Jensen for a decade. According to the Wall Street Journal, those close to Kang said he was accepting of his wife’s relationship with Jensen, often joking she was his personal assistant.
Alice’s social media pages also reportedly included many photos of the two – playing golf in San Jose, drinking wine in Shanghai, dining with friends in Taiwan and together at Nvidia’s headquarters in San Francisco.
On Thursday morning, Jensen resigned
Tech executive Parker Schmitt, who snapped the aforementioned late-night photo of Jensen and Alice in 2024, told the New York Times that each photo was ‘a point of pride’ for Alice, who wanted to be seen as a talented sales executive.
But Lori wouldn’t even need these photos in a divorce dispute. As a no-fault state, California allows couples to file for divorce without proof that the other person committed any wrongdoing.
Because California is a no-fault state, a second affair would also have little impact on a possible divorce between Lori and Jensen.
‘An affair or multiple affairs are a reason to get divorced but don’t improve Lori’s chances of success in a divorce, help her get more of the assets, or more spousal support,’ Palmer said.
‘Most affairs don’t change the case outcome.’
Lori Huang has not issued a public statement yet about the affair.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Jensen and Lori Huang for comment.
In the time since the affair snowballed into an investigation, Alice has disappeared. Slipping out of public view, her current whereabouts are unknown. President Donald Trump has said the FBI is investigating the matter.
Taiwanese officials have since revoked Alice’s entry permit and barred her from returning, citing investigations into whether her visits to the island involved intelligence gathering. She had been detained by Singapore authorities last summer and the country is still investigating Megaspeed, but not Alice’s ties to China.
Her husband was also detained earlier this year in Shanghai but recently released, according to people who know the couple.
Without naming his secret lover, Jensen addressed the national security concerns in his Sunday statement to the company, saying that the company’s board of directors have initiated an independent investigation into the affair.
On Sunday, a spokesperson for Nvidia said: ‘We trust that if we were the target of a genuine threat, the U.S. government would have notified us.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Nvidia for further comment.
