For more than 30 years, Jensen Huang has been Nvidia. He has run the company since its early days, and he now leads a firm whose chips sit at the centre of the global race to build artificial intelligence. This week, that long tenure came under unusual scrutiny. Nvidia's board announced an independent investigation after a New York Times report said US intelligence officials believed a Chinese businesswoman, Alice Huang, who was close to the chief executive, was working as a spy for Beijing.

Two statements followed, and they differ in tone. Huang's was personal. He admitted being unfaithful to his wife, said his actions had hurt her and their children, and wrote that there was "no excuse" for them. He also acknowledged that he had fallen short of his duties to employees, the board and shareholders, and promised to cooperate fully with the inquiry.

The board's statement was procedural. It said it had no reason to believe that national security or company secrets had been compromised, but that its review would examine "all available information". It also described Huang as the target of a foreign intelligence effort, a phrase that casts him as a possible victim rather than a suspect. The political reaction has been cautious.