Key facts
- Nvidia's independent directors said they hired Joon H. Kim and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz for a "thorough and independent investigation."
- The board said on November 10 it would probe whether CEO Jensen Huang was the "target of a foreign intelligence effort" after he admitted an extramarital affair.
- The New York Times reported last month that US intelligence officials believed Alice Huang was acting as a spy for the Chinese government.
- Kim served as acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2017 to 2018.
- Wachtell represented Twitter in its 2022 suit that forced Elon Musk to complete his $44 billion acquisition.
Nvidia's independent directors said on November 11 that they hired former Manhattan federal prosecutor Joon H. Kim and his firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, to conduct a "thorough and independent investigation" into CEO Jensen Huang. The board had said on November 10 that it would launch the probe into whether Huang was the "target of a foreign intelligence effort" after he admitted to an extramarital affair.
The New York Times reported last month that US intelligence officials believed Alice Huang, the woman at the center of the matter, was acting as a spy for the Chinese government, according to the report.
Wachtell, founded in 1965, advises companies and boards on mergers, corporate governance and shareholder fights. Founding partner Martin Lipton developed the "poison pill" defense against hostile takeovers. The firm represented Twitter when it sued Elon Musk in 2022, forcing him to complete his $44 billion acquisition, and the NBA hired it in 2021 to investigate workplace misconduct allegations against Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver, who was suspended for a year and fined $10 million. The NBA again hired Wachtell to investigate whether the LA Clippers and player Kawhi Leonard violated salary cap rules; in September the league fined the Clippers $30 million and suspended owner Steve Ballmer for one year, citing the investigation.
Kim joined Wachtell last month as a partner in its litigation department after nearly a decade at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. He served as acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2017 to 2018, overseeing more than 220 assistant US attorneys, and as an assistant US attorney there from 2000 to 2006, helping secure convictions against organized crime figures including Peter Gotti. In 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James appointed him to co-lead an independent investigation into sexual harassment allegations against then-governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned after the investigation concluded he had sexually harassed multiple women.