Wachtell Lipton to lead Nvidia inquiry into foreign espionage effort

Nvidia: No reason to believe national security or secrets compromised

Wachtell Lipton will lead an independent investigation into whether Nvidia was the target of a foreign espionage effort, the chipmaker said Tuesday. The law firm named Joon Kim, a former federal prosecutor, to conduct the inquiry, and a committee of the company’s independent directors will oversee the work alongside Wachtell.

Nvidia’s board announced the investigation on Sunday, and the company said Tuesday that Wachtell would lead it. Kim joined the firm last month.

The assignment comes as Nvidia faces scrutiny from U.S. officials and shareholders, following revelations that Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang had an intimate relationship with an industry executive suspected of working for Chinese intelligence. Huang has admitted to the relationship with Alice Huang, an executive at the Singapore-based data center firm Megaspeed.

Nvidia said over the weekend that it had no reason to believe that either national security or company secrets had been compromised. The company said the inquiry would examine all available information.

Kim held several leadership roles at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, including serving as its acting head. In 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James hired Kim, who was at Cleary Gottlieb at the time, to investigate sexual harassment allegations against Gov. Andrew Cuomo. That office released a more-than-100-page report in August finding that the governor had sexually harassed state employees. Cuomo said the report was biased and mischaracterized everyday interactions.

Wachtell is an elite New York law firm with about 300 lawyers that is well known for conducting internal investigations for major corporations and organizations. The firm has done work over the years for the National Basketball Association, including an investigation into a scandal involving the Los Angeles Clippers and star Kawhi Leonard.

Wachtell released its 35-page report on that investigation in September, stating that it conducted 73 interviews and reviewed hundreds of thousands of pages of documents.

The question at the center of the Nvidia inquiry — whether the company was the target of a foreign espionage effort — remains open. The company has said only that the review will examine all available information, and that a committee of its independent directors will oversee Wachtell’s work.