NVIDIA has put a former top federal prosecutor in charge of the investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. In a one-sentence statement on Tuesday, November 10, the board's independent members said they have retained Joon H. Kim and his firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Kim is a former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the federal prosecutor's office based in Manhattan. His hiring fills the biggest gap left when the board opened the investigation on Sunday, November 8. That first statement promised "outside independent counsel" but did not say who it would be.
The question now is less who runs the review than how fast it can move. Huang faces a congressional deadline on November 11, an earnings call on November 17 and a requested briefing with lawmakers the day after.
Who is leading the NVIDIA board investigation into Jensen Huang
The new statement also changes who is speaking. Sunday's release came from the NVIDIA board as a whole, while Tuesday's comes from its independent members, the directors who are not company executives. That matches the structure set out on November 8, when the board said a committee of independent directors would oversee the work.
Kim and Wachtell are retained to conduct "a thorough and independent investigation," in the statement's words. It adds nothing about scope, timing or early findings, and it does not name the foreign government behind the reported effort.
The board's starting position is unchanged. It has "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised," according to the November 8 statement, though it will "examine all available information" anyway.
What Jensen Huang told NVIDIA employees about the investigation
Huang addressed the review himself in an email to employees that NVIDIA published on November 8, saying he supports the investigation and will cooperate fully.
On the security question, he kept it short. "I support the investigation and will cooperate fully," Huang wrote, adding that he is "committed to protecting NVIDIA and supporting America's national security" and asking that his family be given privacy.
Why Congress wants Jensen Huang to answer by November 11
The board's review runs alongside a request from Capitol Hill. Three House chairmen, John Moolenaar of the Select Committee on China, Brian Mast of Foreign Affairs and Rick Crawford of Intelligence, have asked Huang for a joint, closed-door briefing.
Their letter focuses on Huang's interactions with Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, whom the chairmen call "a publicly reported Chinese intelligence asset," and on NVIDIA's defenses against espionage. Huang has until Wednesday, November 11, to accept the November 18 date or offer another. Neither NVIDIA nor the committees had said publicly by late November 10 whether he will attend.
The scrutiny reaches beyond one executive because NVIDIA's AI chips sit at the center of US export policy toward China. That pressure has ranged from B300 GPUs found on a China Telecom network to reported multibillion-dollar orders from Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance.
What comes next for NVIDIA: earnings on November 17, briefing on November 18
NVIDIA reports its third-quarter results for fiscal 2027 on Tuesday, November 17, with a conference call at 2 p.m. Pacific Time. Questions on that call are limited to financial analysts and institutional investors, and the requested congressional briefing would follow a day later.
Hiring Kim settles who will run the inquiry. Whether his findings land before investors and lawmakers ask their own questions is something neither statement addresses. For now, the board has said only that it will "provide further updates as appropriate."
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