From the establishment of Megaspeed to the resignation of Jensen Huang... What happened in the past 3 years?

As Jensen Huang, who has led the global artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor market, suddenly resigned from his position as CEO of Nvidia on the 12th (local time), the series of events that led to his downfall are receiving attention again.

Suspicions of the Singaporean company Megaspeed's indirect export of semiconductors to China grew into a national security controversy in the United States when an affair between former CEO Hwang and a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy was revealed, and suspicions of additional affairs with company executives arose, leading to the resignation of former CEO Hwang.

◇ Megaspeed established in 2023… Close relationship between Jensen Huang and Ellis Huang captured in 2024

According to the main log of scandals related to former CEO Hwang compiled by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the origin of this incident dates back to 2023.

At that time, Megaspeed was founded as a spin-off from the Chinese company 7 Road Holdings.

Megaspeed built a data center in Southeast Asia using NVIDIA semiconductors and promoted a business that leased the cloud computing capacity secured through this to customers.

However, in late 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce began investigating the possibility that Megaspeed may have shipped Nvidia semiconductors to China, bypassing U.S. export control regulations.

In this process, the relationship between Megaspeed's former executive Alice Hwang and former CEO Hwang also received attention.

The two were photographed with other industry officials at a technology conference after-party in Taipei, Taiwan in June 2024, and were also spotted together at a private dinner in Taipei in May of the following year.

On October 9 last year, the New York Times (NYT) reported that U.S. federal investigative authorities were looking into the relationship between the two along with the suspicion of Megaspeed exporting semiconductors to China.

◇ Jensen Huang and Trump also have a close relationship... Easing export controls on semiconductors to China in 2025

The relationship between former CEO Hwang and President Donald Trump remained close for a considerable period of time.

The Trump administration restricted the export of H20 semiconductors, which Nvidia designed with reduced performance for the Chinese market, in April last year, but reversed the policy in July and began issuing export permits in August.

In this process, former CEO Hwang persuaded President Trump to ease export restrictions with the argument that semiconductor export controls to China could actually promote the growth of Chinese companies such as Huawei and weaken the United States' technological leadership.

Former CEO Hwang held a developer event in Washington DC on October 28 last year, after the NYT report raised suspicions regarding him, and praised the Trump administration's policies to foster manufacturing and support the AI ​​industry.

However, ahead of the US-China summit held in Busan two days later on October 30, former CEO Hwang's request for approval to export NVIDIA's cutting-edge Blackwell semiconductors to China was canceled due to opposition from China hardliners within the Trump administration.

Instead, on December 8 last year, President Trump announced that he would allow conditional exports of H200 semiconductors, which have lower performance than Blackwell but higher specifications than H20, to China.

◇ Trump suspected of condoning the ‘Jensen Huang scandal’ during his visit to China in May 2026

It was in the spring of this year that the matter became more serious.

A confidential memo was written under the supervision of Secretary of State Marco Rubio warning about former CEO Hwang's personal relationship with Alice Hwang. Around this time, the U.S. Department of Justice began leading the Megaspeed-related investigation.

During this period, former CEO Hwang continued to work closely with President Trump.

Last May, he joined President Trump's visit to China at the last minute and boarded the presidential plane, Air Force One, in Alaska. On September 14, President Trump personally called former CEO Hwang, who was talking at a podcast event, and praised each other.

President Trump even awarded the National Medal of Science to former CEO Hwang on the 8th of last month.

However, between the 29th of the same month and the 1st of November, the NYT and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported one after another that US intelligence authorities suspected Alice Huang of being linked to Chinese intelligence agencies and that she had a close relationship with former CEO Hwang, and the situation changed dramatically.

Initially, NVIDIA did not attach special meaning to the exchange between the two, saying that meeting with customer executives was a normal part of the CEO's duties.

◇ Jensen Huang admits to having an affair with Alice Huang... Jensen Huang resigns due to U.S. security issue

On the 8th, the controversy entered a new phase as former CEO Hwang admitted for the first time to an extramarital affair with Alice Hwang.

Nvidia's board of directors has launched an investigation into whether former CEO Hwang leaked the company's confidential information during his relationship with Alice Hwang.

At the time, President Trump defended Hwang, saying, "I think so," when asked whether he should remain as CEO.

The next day, on the 9th, President Trump directly asked former CEO Hwang if he knew that the other woman was a spy, and said, "He said he had no idea, and I truly believe him."

However, the controversy spread further when the NYT reported on the 11th that former CEO Hwang had also had an extramarital affair with a high-ranking Nvidia executive who reported directly to him.

On the same day, Nvidia's board of directors held a meeting to decide on former CEO Hwang's future.

Finally, on the morning of the 12th, Nvidia announced that former CEO Hwang would immediately resign from his position as CEO and director.

Former CEO Hwang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and led the company for 33 years and established himself as a symbolic figure in the global AI industry, stepped down from management amid a series of allegations of extramarital affairs and national security controversy.

Additional suspicions were raised on the day of his resignation. Citing multiple sources, Reuters reported on this day that former CEO Hwang had an affair with another female employee at Nvidia in addition to the two women previously known.