"Jensen Huang Affair Allegations": NVIDIA 'No Comment' on Questions About Reason for South Korea Visit Cancellation

At the NVIDIA AI Day event held at COEX in Seoul on Nov. 9, reporters asked NVIDIA to provide a detailed explanation for Senior Director Madison Huang's sudden cancellation of her trip to South Korea, but the company declined to answer.

Park Sunghyun, CEO of Rebellions (from left); Jung Seokgeun, chief technology officer (CTO) of SK Telecom; Lee Dogyu, director of the ICT Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT; and Ashish Karandikar, vice president of NVLink Fusion at NVIDIA, pose for a photo at the signing ceremony for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between NVIDIA, SK Telecom, and Rebellions at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 9th. Nov. 9, 2026. Photo by Kim Hyunmin

At NVIDIA AI Day Seoul 2026, NVIDIA, SK Telecom and Rebellions held a signing ceremony for an MOU on cooperation in AI infrastructure. Just before the event ended, reporters asked why Senior Director Madison Huang had canceled her trip to South Korea and whether the U.S. congressional investigation into CEO Jensen Huang could affect the schedule for bringing in the 260,000 GPUs that South Korea is set to receive.

Reporters also raised concerns and asked whether cooperation with domestic semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix could be disrupted if the investigation undermined Jensen Huang's leadership.

NVIDIA declined to answer, saying, "I don't think that question is related to today's event." When reporters followed up, asking whether Senior Director Madison Huang had been scheduled to attend, the company drew a line, saying, "It's difficult to answer because [Madison Huang] was unable to attend."

The sudden cancellation of Senior Director Madison Huang's trip to South Korea has left officials from the South Korean government and companies visibly unsettled. A meeting with Bae Kyunghoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, was abruptly canceled only the previous evening. The "Korea AI Startup Partnership Forum," which was to be co-chaired that afternoon by Ryu Jemyeong, Second Vice Minister of Science and ICT, was also changed. Major events, including a morning photo session with Kakao Mobility, were canceled one after another.

The opening ceremony of NVIDIA AI Day went ahead as scheduled, but some attendees who had planned to visit COEX to see Madison Huang turned back. This prompted concerns in some quarters that NVIDIA AI Day might end up being only a partial event.

CEO Jensen Huang became embroiled in controversy after foreign media reported on his relationship with a woman alleged to have ties to Chinese intelligence agencies. The previous day, Huang sent a message to employees, admitted that he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologized.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.