Jensen Huang's potential ouster from Nvidia has plunged the AI industry into uncharted territory — a corporate earthquake that dwarfs even the chaos unleashed by Sam Altman's temporary firing from OpenAI in 2023. Why it matters: Nvidia is the backbone of the global AI economy, with its chips, investments and financial guarantees sustaining an entire ecosystem of companies worth trillions of dollars. • At the center of that vast financial flywheel is Huang, who spent 33 years making himself synonymous with Nvidia — and Nvidia synonymous with the AI revolution.• "This is no ordinary CEO. This is no ordinary company. This is no ordinary sector. This is no ordinary time," economist Mohamed El-Erian wrote on X, warning of contagion across the AI industry. Zoom in: As recently as two weeks ago, the notion of Nvidia without Jensen was unthinkable. • Even after his affair with a suspected Chinese spy came to light, President Trump and Nvidia's board stood behind him, Silicon Valley's elite rallied to his defense and betting markets suggested he would survive.• It took revelations of a second affair — this time with an executive who reported directly to Huang — to shatter that consensus and bring his storied reign to the brink of a stunning end. Driving the news: After that second affair came to light Wednesday night, Nvidia's board reportedly met to settle Huang's fate, though there was still no decision as of early Thursday morning. The White House was read in. • The market reaction has been brutal. Nvidia had already shed more than $1 trillion in market value since the initial scandal erupted, and shares plunged further in after-hours and pre-market trading overnight.• One of Wall Street's most prominent voices on tech, analyst Dan Ives, said Nvidia was worth 25% less without Huang. Zoom out: Huang's rise was the stuff of Silicon Valley legend: The Taiwanese immigrant went from cleaning toilets at a Kentucky boarding school and waiting tables at Denny's to building one of the most valuable companies in history. • Huang and two fellow engineers hatched the idea for Nvidia at a Denny's booth in 1993, launching a chipmaker that would revolutionize gaming, transform modern computing and ultimately power the AI revolution.• Clad in his trademark black leather jacket, Huang became a global AI rock star — with a cult of personality that drew adoring crowds, calmed markets and commanded the attention of world leaders. The big picture: Huang's apparent downfall comes amid mounting anxiety over the AI industry's future, as new financial, political and regulatory risks threaten one of the largest infrastructure buildouts in history. • The timing is especially fraught for Anthropic, whose historic IPO — backed by a $10 billion commitment from Nvidia — looms as a referendum on Wall Street's faith in the AI trade.• Huang spent years defending the industry's soaring valuations and dismissing warnings of a speculative frenzy. Now his own scandals could help burst the bubble he insisted didn't exist. What to watch: The blast radius could extend far beyond Silicon Valley and Wall Street, threatening to engulf the Trump administration in a scandal over its handling of sensitive technology exports to China. • Huang forged a close alliance with Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who loosened restrictions on chip sales even as other officials raised concerns about Chinese espionage and smuggling.• Top Senate Democrats are already demanding that Lutnick and other senior officials preserve records of their dealings with Nvidia and Huang, laying the groundwork for a sweeping investigation. The bottom line: As veteran China watcher Bill Bishop wrote after Huang acknowledged his first affair: "There is rarely just one lie."

Nvidia Corp.’s investigation of Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy is raising questions about the company’s future and sending its stock into a tailspin.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's scandal could stop GPU supplies to China, leaving more supply for America's AI boom.

Xi Jinping, President of China, has called for the peaceful ‘reunification’ of Taiwan with China.

Nvidia CEO is under investigation for an affair with a woman whom US intelligence believes to be a Chinese spy.

China on Thursday accused the United States of “fabricating spy narratives” to justify a technology “blockade”, stepping up its pushback against reports that the woman Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had an affair with was a Chinese intelligence asset.

The scandal engulfing Jensen Huang is fueling calls for tighter restrictions on China's access to advanced AI chips, just days before the Trump-Xi summit.

The meeting with Kushner and Witkoff comes after two days of trilateral talks in the UAE yielded no breakthrough.

Ukrainian ⁠President Volodymyr Zelensky ​on Thursday said that Ukrainian ​military units had recorded new and significant disruptions to the Starshield satellite communications service in recent days, affecting ​the ‌entire front ⁠line and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

The strike hit the surgery department of Nasser Hospital, injuring at least 20 people and causing extensive damage, a spokesperson says.

Gaza's Civil Defence says an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital has killed at least six people.

Israel orders military to step up preparations for possible attack on Iran as Tehran says it will retaliate if attacked.

The unusual global footprint of Megaspeed, a major buyer of Nvidia's powerful AI computer chips, is fueling questions about whether it's a front for the Chinese government.

Alice Huang, a former executive of a Singapore-based AI computing company, is at the center of a suspected Chinese espionage scandal after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang acknowledged an extramarital affair. Why it matters: The investigation raises questions about whether Chinese intelligence sought access to Nvidia's technology and CEO through Alice Huang as the U.S. and China compete in the AI race. Driving the news: Over the weekend, Jensen Huang admitted in a letter to Nvidia employees that he had a romantic relationship with a suspected Chinese spy. • Though he did not name Alice Huang, the letter came after The New York Times first reported that U.S. authorities believed she was a Chinese spy in October.• Photos captured Alice and Jensen Huang together in 2024 and 2025.• Though they have the same surname, Alice and Jensen Huang are not related or married. Jensen Huang has been married to Lori Huang for 40 years. Context: Little is known about Alice Huang. She has lead a Singapore-based company called Megaspeed International, a cloud computing and data center operator that became a multibillion-dollar Nvidia customer. • The New York Times reported Monday that the Commerce Department was leading the investigation into Megaspeed before it was sent to the Justice Department after Nvidia reached out about the case. Read more about Alice Huang and Megaspeed below. Who is Alice Huang? Zoom in: Huang, also known as Huang Le, is a Chinese citizen with a reported background in journalism and finance. • An AFP investigation found an online profile that said she previously worked at the financial services company HSBC and the broadcasters CCTV and Hunan TV. • However, AFP said it couldn't independently verify the information. Zoom out: The New York Times reports that China's Ministry of State Security recruited Alice Huang to seek information about Jensen Huang and influence his feelings about selling AI chips to Chinese firms. • But it's still unclear what information she provided to Beijing and whether she obtained any from Jensen Huang.• Nvidia's board says it has no reason to believe Alice Huang obtained trade secrets. China has also denied the allegations. What to know about Alice Huang's company Alice Huang is a former executive of Megaspeed International, which rents out computing power from advanced Nvidia processors, giving customers power to run AI systems without owning chips. • Before it was Megaspeed, the company was known as 7Road International, a subsidiary of prominent Chinese video game developer, 7Road Holdings. Before the AI boom, Nvidia products were primarily used in the video game industry.• In the 2010s, Alice worked at Shanghai Hexi Investment Management, which had investment connections to the 7Road gaming company. She also sold a cloud business to 7Road in 2019, according to documents compiled by Tesari AI, an AI startup focused on national security matters.• 7Road International, the Singapore subsidiary of 7Road Holdings, became Megaspeed in March 2023, and Alice Huang became managing director, per Tesari AI's documents. Her company Huang Le Limited became the sole owner of Megaspeed. In November 2023, Megaspeed was bought by a company called Swiftdata. Alice Huang and another director, Cang Yang, soon resigned from the company. • The company faced an investigation by Singapore police in October 2025 over violations of local laws, but specific offenses were not shared publicly. Employees told The Wall Street Journal that Alice Huang continued leading the business after resigning. • Alice Huang is "actually still our boss," an employee told Culper Research, which published an investigation into Nvidia's China business in May 2026. How Alice Huang's Megaspeed ties to Nvidia By the numbers: Megaspeed became an official Nvidia Cloud Partner in 2023, per Bloomberg, and purchased more than $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over roughly two years, per AP. • Alice Huang bragged about her access to Jensen Huang and Nvidia connections to help raise funds for her businesses, according to the NYT.• A Megaspeed employee told Culper that Jensen Huang would visit Megaspeed sometimes, adding that Jensen and Alice had a "very close" relationship. Follow the money: Megaspeed's balance sheet ballooned from $33 million at the end of 2023 to nearly $3 billion a year later, according to corporate records examined by Culper, a short seller with a financial interest in Nvidia's decline. • Much of that growth involved approximately $2.9 billion in refundable deposits from an unidentified source, per Culper.• The financing raises additional questions about Megaspeed's relationship with Chinese businesses. More recently, in early 2025, Alice Huang and business partner Kang Wei told investors they had "no problem securing GPUs" and touted Alibaba as a customer for a new data center project, according to the Financial Times. What are authorities investigating? State of play: U.S. authorities, including the Commerce Department and Justice Department, have investigated whether Megaspeed helped Chinese companies obtain advanced Nvidia processors and whether that violated export-control restrictions. • The company disputed illegal chip transfers in December 2025. The company has said it plans to work with U.S. authorities over the investigation. What's next: Three Republican House committee chairs have requested a closed-door briefing with Jensen Huang on Nov. 18 about his interactions with Alice Huang and how Nvidia protects itself against foreign threats.

Huang was notably opposed to strict export controls on AI chips to China, which ruffled feathers with congressional China hawks.

Turns out that the new masters of the universe are human, all too human. China accused of exploiting a vulnerability at the heart of the Silicon Valley giant that reigns supreme over two-thirds of the planet’s AI computing power production, the Nvidia co-founder tempted by the flesh. Jensen Huang admitting to an extramarital affair with Singapore-based Chinese tech CEO Alice Huang - no relation. She’s under scrutiny over the purchase of Nvidia state-of-the-art chips that may have been smuggled back to the mainland illegally. We’ll ask about the rise and possible fall of the Taiwan-born leather-clad AI world icon.

Turns out that the new masters of the universe are human, all too human. China accused of exploiting a vulnerability at the heart of the Silicon Valley giant that reigns supreme over two-thirds of the planet’s AI computing power production, the Nvidia co-founder tempted by the flesh. Jensen Huang admitting to an extramarital affair with Singapore-based Chinese tech CEO Alice Huang - no relation. She’s under scrutiny over the purchase of Nvidia state-of-the-art chips that may have been smuggled back to the mainland illegally. We’ll ask about the rise and possible fall of the Taiwan-born leather-clad AI world icon.

Washington called for a "new" security framework on the first day of US-led talks between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was "happy" with the changes in approach by US mediators. Negotiations are set to continue Wednesday. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.

Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States are meeting in Abu Dhabi for their first trilateral talks in more than nine months, as Washington pushes for an end to the war and Kyiv faces pressure to make territorial concessions. European representatives will also attend, amid fears that US President Donald Trump could press Ukraine to accept a deal on Moscow's terms. Follow our live blog for the latest events.

The White House is "cautiously optimistic" as peace talks between Russia and Ukraine resume in Abu Dhabi this week, U.S. officials said on Monday. Why it matters: The talks on Tuesday and Wednesday will be the first time the parties have met with U.S. mediators present since February, when they were suspended due to the war in Iran. • White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have worked for weeks to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to restart negotiations. President Trump and his team hope Putin will be more willing to compromise after the U.S. lifted sanctions on Russian diesel sales and took other steps welcomed by Moscow. • "The relations we have built with Putin will be instrumental in these negotiations," a U.S. official said. • After the meetings in Abu Dhabi, Witkoff and Kushner may travel to Moscow and Kyiv to speak directly with Putin and Zelensky, a U.S. official said. Yes, but: The parties remain far apart, particularly over potential territorial concessions by Ukraine. Russia's escalating attacks on Ukrainian cities and Putin's refusal to agree to a ceasefire have cast doubt on prospects for meaningful progress. Behind the scenes: Over the last two weeks, Witkoff and Kushner had daily phone calls — sometimes multiple times a day — with Russian and Ukrainian officials to prepare for the upcoming talks, U.S. officials said. What they're saying: U.S. officials who briefed reporters on Monday struck a positive tone despite skepticism in Europe and Ukraine about Putin's willingness to end the war. • "There is a shot to make significant progress towards a deal and to try and bridge the gaps," a U.S. official said. "Getting the parties back to the table wasn't easy to do and we see promising signs as mediators."• The official added that Witkoff and Kushner want to use the talks to "crystallize" the decisions Putin and Zelensky will have to make. Driving the news: The talks in Abu Dhabi will focus on two tracks: • A military working group led by the commander of U.S. European command, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, will discuss post-war ceasefire monitoring and security arrangements. The working group made significant progress on this front during the last round of talks in February. • A political working group that focuses on the most sensitive topic: territorial demands. There was no progress on this issue in February. State of play: The two sides haven't budged publicly. Russia is demanding control over the entire region of Donbas, while Ukraine insists that territory be divided based on current front lines. • In private, though, U.S. officials say that both sides "have shown a little bit of flexibility" on the territorial issue in recent weeks. • They say an agreement on territory won't be possible until security guarantees are reached. The big picture: Witkoff and Kushner invited senior officials from NATO, the EU and four major European powers — the UK, France, Germany and Italy — to Abu Dhabi to hold separate discussions on the sidelines of the Russia-Ukraine negotiations. • Ukraine's European allies will play a key role in any post-war security arrangements. • The U.S. also wants to start a third track of negotiations between European countries and Russia to create new ways of easing tensions and avoiding conflict. • But many European countries are highly suspicious of the idea. They believe it endorses a Russian narrative that Europe is a security threat to Moscow and worry it will result in weakening NATO. • U.S. officials stress that the proposed Europe-Russia security initiative would not replace or diminish NATO and the central role it plays in protecting Europe. • But a new security agreement between Europe and Russia would help end the war in Ukraine, they say. • A U.S. official said Witkoff and Kushner hope Russians will agree to include European representatives in the next round of peace talks after Abu Dhabi. What to watch: Ukrainian officials say they have three priorities for the talks: • Clinching a deal to de-escalate tensions on the Black Sea and allow grain exports. • Reaching an agreement to stop attacks on Ukrainian power plants and Russian oil refineries before the winter. • Organizing a trilateral summit between Trump, Putin and Zelensky, possibly during the G20 summit in Miami next month.

Oil climbed after a two-day decline, as traders weighed mixed signals on the prospects for a conclusion to the Iran war.

Oil steadied after slumping to its lowest since August, as optimism around diplomatic efforts to end the war in the Middle East outweighed concerns over attacks in the region.

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a major prisoner exchange following two days of US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi

The U.S. has helped broker a new Ukraine-Russia prisoner exchange and diplomacy will continue, but there's no sign of a breakthrough on a wider peace deal.

The talks in the UAE capital were the first ⁠between the two warring sides since February.