Some of the most valuable secrets in the world are not stored on servers. They sit in the minds and private lives of a few people. That is the uncomfortable idea behind a report, first carried by Ars Technica, that Nvidia is investigating whether Chinese intelligence services targeted its chief executive, Jensen Huang, by exploiting an affair. The details matter, and so far they are thin.

The company is described as looking into a possibility, not confirming one. No public evidence has been presented that an operation took place, that anyone was compromised, or that any information changed hands. Readers should treat the story as a question under investigation, not a finding. Even so, the question is revealing.

Nvidia designs the processors that power most advanced artificial intelligence, and its chips have become a central object of rivalry between Washington and Beijing. American export controls have restricted which of them can be sold to China, and the company has spent years adjusting products to fit shifting rules. In that setting, a single executive is more than a businessperson. He is a point of leverage, with access to strategy, pricing and the thinking behind policy lobbying.