Donald Trump said on Monday that the FBI is “looking into” matters connected to Jensen Huang’s affair with a woman US intelligence has linked to China. He added that the Nvidia chief executive had personally assured him that he did not know she was a spy. “He said, ‘I had no idea that she was a spy,’ and I really believe him,” Trump told reporters at a White House news conference on 9 November. On the same day, WIRED reported that Huang had been working with Heller, a New York crisis communications firm known for handling sex scandals, since as early as October 2025.
The two developments landed on a bruising day for Nvidia, whose shares fell 4.27% to close at $178.67, according to Al Jazeera. Huang admitted on 8 November that he had been “unfaithful” to his wife, and the company’s board has opened an independent investigation. Our Megaspeed explainer sets out how a Chinese gaming company’s offshoot came to sit at the centre of the case.
What Trump said about Jensen Huang and the FBI
Trump kept his comments short but notably supportive. “We’ll look into it,” he said, adding that he knew “the FBI is looking into it in terms of something else” and that “I think he will be in good shape”. He did not explain what “something else” referred to, and the FBI has not commented publicly on any inquiry. According to CNBC, Trump said Huang told him on Monday itself that he had no idea about the woman’s alleged intelligence role.
The president’s account of when he learned about the concerns is harder to square with earlier reporting. Trump said he first heard about them “not too long ago”, although he also said he had been “reading a little bit about it over a period of time”. The New York Times reported in late October, however, that Trump had been briefed on the intelligence findings about a year earlier. He has defended Huang since the first reports, saying on 31 October that “we’re going to check it out very closely” while calling him “very above board”.
The crisis PR firm Nvidia brought in a year before the affair became public
WIRED’s report, by Lauren Goode, cites two sources who say Heller has handled Huang’s behind-the-scenes communications since late 2025. According to the outlet, Nvidia told its internal communications team in late October 2025 to include the firm on all press inquiries concerning Huang, whether personal or professional. That instruction came shortly after the New York Times first reported on Megaspeed’s Nvidia purchases. Heller’s team also communicated frequently with Huang and his daughter Madison, a product marketing director at Nvidia.
The firm was initially thought to be handling private matters, such as the family’s philanthropy, and it is not clear whether its early work involved the affair. Heller was founded by Risa Heller, a former press secretary to Senator Chuck Schumer, whose reported clients have included Anthony Weiner during his 2011 sexting scandal, chef Mario Batali and writer Jeffrey Toobin. A Heller representative referred WIRED to Nvidia, which did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment. Hiring a crisis adviser is not evidence of wrongdoing in itself, although the timing adds to questions about how long Huang’s circle expected scrutiny.
A congressional deadline, earnings and a board review now await Huang
The pressure on Huang is building from several directions at once. Three House Republican committee chairs, in a letter dated 4 November, have given him until Wednesday, 11 November, to accept a closed-door briefing on 18 November, as we explained in our report on the congressional request. Nvidia’s board, meanwhile, says a committee of independent directors and outside counsel will examine “all available information”, according to its official statement. Beijing has dismissed the spy allegations as “groundless speculation, and a smear against China”.
Much of the online conversation has drifted far beyond the known facts. A viral claim that Huang’s wife pawned her wedding ring to save Nvidia in 1995 has no record behind it, as our fact check found, and Alice Huang herself has not commented publicly. Nvidia’s stock has also been volatile for weeks, after the company lost $450 billion in market value in a single day. Huang is due to present Nvidia’s third-quarter results on 17 November, a day before the briefing Congress wants him to attend.
