Nvidia taps lawyer who investigated Andrew Cuomo to probe Jensen Huangs Chinese spy scandal as board faces scrutiny
Nvidia has tapped a high-powered Wall Street lawyer who investigated sexual harassment allegations against former New York Gov.Andrew Cuomo to probe CEO Jensen Huang’s admitted affair with an alleged Chinese spy, the AI giant announced Tuesday.Joon Kim, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and former acting US attorney in Manhattan, was retained along with his firm to conduct an independent investigation into whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation.The appointment puts the veteran prosecutor in the middle of a scandal that has raised questions about the independence of Nvidia’s board, which has long been viewed as deferential to the billionaire executive who co-founded the company.Kim was one of two attorneys appointed by New York Attorney General Letitia James in 2021 to investigate sexual harassment allegations and other misconduct claims against Cuomo.Working alongside employment lawyer Anne Clark, Kim helped lead the inquiry that concluded Cuomo had sexually harassed multiple women.
The former governor denied the allegations but resigned over the scandal.Kim served as acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York from March 2017 to January 2018.Kim briefly took over the seat from Preet Bharara, for whom he had served as deputy, President Trump fired Bharara when the prosecutor refused to resign.Kim’s latest assignment comes as Nvidia faces mounting scrutiny over Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed whom US intelligence officials reportedly identified as an asset of China’s Ministry of State Security.Beijing has denied the espionage allegations.Nvidia announced Sunday that a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, would investigate reports that its 63-year-old chief executive had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation.The announcement came the same day Huang acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife of ...