The Black Leather Jacket Goeth Before the Fall; Or, a Nerd and His Job Soon Part
Published November 12, 2026 at 245 PM EST
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Alice Huang in Taipei in June 2024. (Reuters photo)
SANTA CLARA, CA — NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, 63, worth an estimated $151.2 billion, is embroiled in an international scandal involving an extramarital affair and allegations of Chinese espionage that threaten the reputation of his $4.4 trillion technology company. On November 8, 2026, Huang admitted being unfaithful to his wife of more than 40 years, Lori Huang, 64, following reports linking him romantically to Alice Huang, 49, a Chinese businesswoman associated with Singapore-based Megaspeed International. U.S. intelligence officials reportedly suspect Alice Huang of passing information to Beijing and helping circumvent restrictions on advanced American AI chips, prompting NVIDIA’s board to launch an independent investigation. NVIDIA maintains that it has no reason to believe company secrets or U.S. national security were compromised, while China rejects the espionage allegations.
What that basically means is this young(er), hot Asian jump-off working for the Chinese government got her claws into an obscenely rich nerd, CEO of arguably the world’s most important tech company, who, in his wildest nerd dreams, could never have imagined having this much money and notoriety.
I originally thought Jensen Huang was some Taiwanese-American Mark Zuckerberg who had somehow connived his way into a trillion-dollar company by screwing his two white business partners out of a fortune, especially since he wasn't even enthusiastic about the idea in the beginning. Turns out, the real story is almost as interesting. NVIDIA was founded in 1993 by Huang and two engineers, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, who came up with the original business idea and practically begged Huang to leave his comfortable job and run their startup. While Huang became the public face of NVIDIA, Priem left in 2003 and sold his shares by 2006, walking away from what would eventually have been worth hundreds of billions, while Malachowsky remained with the company. Huang held on to his shares and became one of the richest men on Earth, proving that coming up with a brilliant idea and knowing how to turn it into a fortune are two very different things.
To understand why the Chinese government would be interested in NVIDIA, you first have to understand what makes its chips so damn valuable. These aren't the ordinary chips running your laptop or cellphone; they're powerful processors that allow thousands of computers to work together, training artificial intelligence to recognize patterns, solve problems, and process enormous amounts of information at incredible speeds. That technology can help companies develop everything from self-driving cars and advanced medical treatments to surveillance systems, military drones, and sophisticated weapons. Whoever controls the most advanced AI chips has a tremendous advantage in the race for technological and military supremacy, which explains why Washington has spent years restricting China's access to them. In other words, these little pieces of silicon aren't just worth billions of dollars—they're potentially worth the balance of power between the world's two biggest superpowers.
China has every reason to want more of that computing power, particularly while American export restrictions limit access to the most advanced chips. Enter Alice Huang, a relatively attractive Chinese businesswoman with roots in rural Hunan Province, whose journey from a provincial schoolgirl to the highest circles of international finance and artificial intelligence is almost as remarkable as Jensen Huang's own rise. Known in China as Huang Le, she attended school in Xiangtan before pursuing graduate studies in media at Hong Kong Baptist University, eventually trading television journalism for banking and private equity. She worked for two state-run television stations, China Central Television (CCTV) and Hunan TV, before moving into finance at HSBC, CITIC Securities, and Shanghai Hexi Investment, eventually emerging as a controlling shareholder of Singapore-based Megaspeed International, a major NVIDIA customer. For Alice, romance and finance were intertwined well before Jensen Huang entered the picture: she is married to Chinese financier Kang Wei, her longtime business partner, who introduced her to the NVIDIA chief. That introduction brought her extraordinarily close to the man running arguably the world's most important tech company.
Interestingly, Jensen Huang's American dream has its origins right here in the Bluegrass State, 170 miles southeast of Louisville at the Oneida Baptist Institute in Clay County. Born in Taiwan in 1963, Huang spent part of his childhood in Thailand before his parents sent him and his older brother to America in 1973, where the nine-year-old attended the rural Kentucky boarding school. While his brother worked in the school's tobacco fields, young Jensen was assigned to clean bathrooms before the family eventually reunited and settled in Oregon. He graduated from high school at 16 and earned an electrical engineering degree from Oregon State University, where he met his future wife, Lori Mills, when he was 17 and she was 19. Married since 1985, the couple raised two children, Madison and Spencer, both of whom now hold senior positions at NVIDIA, while Lori has been by his side since long before the money, fame, and signature black leather jacket.
So how did these two link up?
To understand how Alice Huang found herself in the orbit of one of the world's richest men, consider Lauren Sánchez Bezos, wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Before becoming a billionaire's wife, Sánchez was a Los Angeles television journalist who had a son, Nikko, with NFL superstar Tony Gonzalez, then married Patrick Whitesell, one of Hollywood's most powerful talent agents. Gonzalez eventually transitioned into television broadcasting himself, while Whitesell represented major Hollywood talent. Sánchez was already moving in a world where professional athletes, television personalities, Hollywood executives, and wealthy businessmen regularly crossed paths.
And Jeff Bezos was no ordinary Hollywood acquaintance. His Amazon Studios was buying and producing major film and television projects, exactly the kind of business a powerful talent agent like Whitesell wanted access to. Bezos personally pushed Amazon toward blockbuster entertainment, championing its enormously expensive Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series and participating in negotiations for the television rights. Whitesell reportedly introduced Sánchez to Bezos, and she later worked with the billionaire through her aviation company on his Blue Origin space venture before their relationship became romantic.
Now consider Alice Huang. Her husband, Chinese financier Kang Wei, was also her longtime business partner, and he reportedly introduced her to Jensen Huang, whose NVIDIA chips were central to Megaspeed International's business. What began as a connection between businessmen created access for their wives to two of the world's wealthiest tech executives. In both cases, professional relationships opened doors to personal relationships that eventually crossed the boundaries of marriage. Two former television journalists, two influential husbands, two billionaire businessmen—and a remarkably similar intersection of romance, money, lax morals, and power.
As we were writing this article, news came through that Jensen Huang had resigned as CEO of NVIDIA after 33 years, with Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress named interim chief executive. His departure not only follows the new of his affair with Alice Huang, but also a separate revelation that he was bangin' Kimberly Powell, NVIDIA’s vice president of healthcare and one of his direct reports. So, Alice is not necessarily the black widow of this story. Huang i just a pussy hound, and apparently easy pickings. If his dalliances were already known to people watching him, anyone looking to exploit his weaknesses would have recognized his sweet tooth for strange. From there, assigning a woman to get close to him would have been a straightforward intelligence operation, although whether that actually happened remains unproven.
It is not far-fetched to wonder whether Alice’s husband, Kang Wei, might have been vulnerable to a similar arrangement. Compared with the billionaire NVIDIA founder, Wei was hardly in the same league of wealth and influence. That raises an uncomfortable question about whether Alice’s introduction to Huang was simply an innocent business connection or something more calculated. Whatever the truth, Jensen Huang got caught up just like so many other powerful men before him—not because he lacked intelligence, but because he apparently lacked the discipline to control his appetites.
Now Huang may be facing an even more expensive reckoning: divorce. After decades of marriage to Lori Huang, a California divorce could expose a substantial portion of the fortune accumulated during their marriage to division under the state's community-property laws, particularly if no enforceable prenuptial agreement exists. Whether Lori will file for divorce or the couple has a prenup remains unknown, but the potential financial consequences are staggering. And perhaps the cruelest irony of all is that Huang has now lost the very thing that arguably made him sexy to women seeking proximity to power in the first place: his position as the man running NVIDIA.
For Black men, this is another reminder of the high cost of foolishness. No woman, fleeting pleasure or reckless pursuit is worth sacrificing the fortune you've spent a lifetime building. Keep your eyes on the prize, your mind on your money, and your priorities straight. Or, as our publisher once infamously said, "Leave 'em hoes alone."
Related Links
Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO After Affair Revelations — Associated Press
A Mystery Businessman Introduced Jensen Huang to His Paramour — The Wall Street Journal
Jensen Huang’s Second Affair With Nvidia Executive Kimberly Powell — The New York Times
Megaspeed Responds to U.S. Export-Control Investigation — Reuters
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