• The fallout from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s scandal continues.
• On Monday, Nvidia shares and Huang’s net worth took a dive.
• More questions about Huang’s relationship with a Chinese business executive are arising.

The fallout from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang‘s admission of an affair continues.

On Monday, shares of Nvidia fell roughly 5% a day after Nvidia’s board said it was investigating reports that Huang was the target of a Chinese spy campaign.

The woman at the center of the allegations is Alice Huang, who has been an executive for Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer. The New York Times reported in late October that US intelligence officials believe Alice Huang, who developed a close relationship with the Nvidia CEO, was passing information to Beijing.

Several news outlets, including Business Insider, have since reported on other major developments.

Here are the highlights:

• The Commerce Department stopped an investigation into Megaspeed after receiving an email from Nvidia’s general counsel asking about the monthslong probe, The New York Times reported. The case was abruptly transferred to the Justice Department, the outlet reported.

• In early 2025, Alice Huang and a business partner were pitching China-based investors on a Southeast Asia data center project “worth several hundred million dollars,” The Financial Times reported. The pair told investors they would have “no problem securing GPUs,” one investor who was present for the pitch told the publication.

• The Nvidia CEO started working with Heller, a PR firm known for guiding leaders through sex scandals, as early as October 2025, Wired reported. Risa Heller, the crisis communications specialist who founded the firm, has previously worked with the likes of former Rep. Anthony Weiner and chef Mario Batali. Wired noted that Heller also handles corporate communications that are unrelated to scandals.

• Jensen Huang is no longer expected to appear at Anthropic’s CEO forum on Monday, and his name disappeared — and then reappeared — from the speaker lineup for ElevenLabs’ conference on Wednesday, Business Insider’s Henry Chandonnet and Geoff Weiss reported.

• Similarly, Madison Huang, Jensen’s daughter and a senior Nvidia executive, abruptly dropped out of an AI-focused event in Seoul, Bloomberg reported.

• Jensen Huang’s affair raises the question of whether a star CEO can be too important for a company to lose.
• Trump and tech insiders defended Huang, saying his leadership is crucial to Nvidia and US interests.
• Others warned the scandal raises national security concerns and said it should cost Huang his job.

Jensen Huang helped make Nvidia indispensable to the AI boom. Now, amid an investigation into his personal conduct, the company must confront the question of whether he is indispensable to Nvidia, too.

The cofounder and CEO has long been credited with steering the chipmaker’s extraordinary rise, helping to turn it into the world’s most valuable company and himself into one of the most powerful figures in tech.

Yet on Sunday, Huang admitted to having an affair. The woman at the center of the controversy is Alice Huang, who has been an executive for Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer. The New York Times reported that US intelligence officials believe she was passing information to Beijing. Nvidia’s board said it is looking into whether he was a target of a foreign-intelligence effort.

The company now faces an awkward dilemma: Is its star CEO too important to step down?

Some tech leaders, investors, and other executives say Huang’s track record and importance to Nvidia make him impossible to replace. Others say that no CEO should be indispensable, particularly when a board is examining whether his or her personal conduct created risks for the company.

Here’s what they’re saying:

President Donald Trump

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump praised Huang’s work and said he hopes “everything’s fine.”

“He’s done such an incredible job,” said Trump. “He’s a fine person, in my opinion.”

Asked whether he wished he had acted on intelligence alleging the woman Huang had an affair with was a spy, the president said he did not.

“No, I don’t think so,” Trump said, adding that he thinks Huang is “an honorable guy.”

“I think he probably has an excuse for it,” said Trump. “You have to hear it.”

Gavin Baker, managing partner and CIO of Atreides Management

Baker is in the “stay” camp. He said on X on Sunday that he has known Huang for nearly 30 years and does not believe Huang would knowingly disadvantage the US or Nvidia.

“The only thing he has ever said to me about China is the absolute importance of keeping the American hardware ecosystem, led by Nvidia, ahead of China. That’s it,” wrote Baker. “I have never known him to be anything other than patriotic and deeply pro-American.”

Baker said that Huang should remain CEO because he sees Nvidia’s China strategy as advancing US national security interests rather than undermining them. He said on X that Huang has consistently advocated for giving China less powerful versions of the company’s chips, and Baker warned that removing Huang could benefit China.

“I’m not sure what China hoped to gain from this espionage operation given they are restricting sales of Nvidia GPUs inside of China but it is worth considering that having Jensen removed as the CEO of Nvidia might serve China’s own national security goals,” Baker wrote.

Ben Thompson, founder of Stratechery

The founder of Stratechery, a subscription-based newsletter and podcast, is also in favor of keeping Huang put and urged Nvidia leaders’ detractors “to do some reflecting of their own.”

In a post on Stratechery, Thompson said that Huang is essential to Nvidia’s success. He said AI is the most important industry to the US, and that Nvidia is one of the most important companies supporting it.

“I do not subscribe to the idea that anyone could do his job; there are great men, and Huang is one of them. That he is flawed does not change this reality; indeed, great men always are,” Thompson wrote.

He added that he hopes Huang can keep his job amid the turmoil.

“Yes, conduct the investigations; yes, demand better controls. At the end of this, however, absent evidence of any sort of clear betrayal of U.S. interests, it is in the interests of the U.S. that Huang continue to be CEO of Nvidia,” wrote Thompson. “I very much hope that is where this ends up.”

Gary Black, managing partner of The Future Fund

Black doesn’t expect Huang to stick around.

“I doubt Jensen Huang will be able to remain as $NVDA CEO,” he wrote on X on Sunday. “While Huang has not committed any crime or tort, his code of conduct and judgment will be called into question which will likely result in his removal by the NVDA Board.”

Still, Black said he thinks Huang lacks a natural successor within the company. He told Business Insider Nvidia will likely bring in someone from the outside or pick a board member to be interim CEO.

Ryan Fedasiuk, senior fellow at The Foundation for American Innovation

Ryan Fedasiuk, a senior fellow at The Foundation for American Innovation, a technology think tank, anticipates broader fallout.

“I don’t believe this personal affair will remain an isolated event,” he wrote on X on Monday. “I also don’t believe it can be separated from the company’s broader PR crisis in DC: selling advanced chips to China, including through unscrupulous measures.”

Fedasiuk said the affair could invite congressional scrutiny in part because it involved one of Nvidia’s customers.

“I don’t see how it’s possible for him to survive,” Fedasiuk told Business Insider.

Dan Ives, partner and senior managing director at Yorkville Ives

In an X post on Sunday, Ives called the saga a stain on Huang’s reputation. “This is a black eye moment for Jensen and will spark multiple congressional inquiries at a minimum and will create an overhang,” Ives wrote.

Ives later said in a follow-up post that investors largely expect Huang to remain CEO but are factoring in a small chance that the board investigation could lead to his removal or departure. Ives added that Huang was not replaceable in investors’ eyes, which he said was a worry for Wall Street.

• On Friday, Singapore Airlines unveiled new cabin designs for every class, from economy to first.
• The new seats and other enhancements will begin rolling out on select aircraft in 2027.
• The innovations are designed to offer passengers more space, storage, privacy, and comfort.

Singapore Airlines was named the world’s best airline by Skytrax in 2026 — but they’re not resting on their laurels.

The airline is investing over S$2 billion, or around $1.5 billion, to overhaul its long-haul experience across all cabins, from economy to first class, including its in-flight entertainment system, Starlink WiFi, food and beverage offerings, amenity kits, and more.

“When we set out to do this, our vision is to redefine long-haul travel, to create a journey that’s more comfortable, personal, and intuitive for the customers,” Ong Wah Li, vice president of product experience at Singapore Airlines, told Business Insider.

Starting in the second half of 2027, the new seats and cabin products will be introduced on select Boeing and Airbus jets in Singapore Airlines’ fleet. Its future Boeing 777-9s — which are set to deliver in 2027 but are still awaiting certification from the Federal Aviation Administration — will feature all four redesigned cabins.

The Airbus A350-900 and the A350-900ULR (ultra-long-range) will be upgraded with the new business class, and the A350-900ULR will also get first class for the first time.

“While each cabin has been designed individually, they are united by the same ambition to make the experience more comfortable, flexible, and rewarding for our customers,” Lee Lik Hsin, Singapore Airlines’ chief commercial officer, told reporters at a media preview on Thursday.

The upgrades, which go beyond the cabin to also include enhancements to Singapore Airlines’ airport lounges, come as an increasing number of airlines pivot toward premium offerings that customers are willing to pay more for.

“We have seen rising travel in premium classes from non-corporate segments, whether it is leisure travel, whether it is family travel, even student travel — parents sending their kids to college on business class,” Hsin said.

On Friday, Singapore Airlines unveiled its first look at the new cabins. Here’s what passengers can expect.

The new and improved economy seats on Singapore Airlines will feature more knee and shin clearance and multiple storage options.

The economy seats will have 31 to 32 inches of legroom, up to 6 inches of recline, and a four-way adjustable headrest.

Economy passengers will also have access to a cupholder, coat hook, and under-monitor seatback pockets with separate compartments.

The cupholder will give customers a place to keep their drink without having to fold down the tray table.

Singapore Airlines’ new premium economy seats will feature more legroom and a deeper recline.

Legroom in the new premium economy seats, co-designed by Factorydesign, will increase from 38 inches to 40 inches. The recline will also deepen from 8 inches to 9 inches.

Like the economy seats, premium economy will also have four-way adjustable headrests.

Premium economy will also include more storage.

Premium economy will feature a water bottle holder, an additional compartment under the armrest, and a cocktail tray for keeping snacks and beverages without deploying the tray table.

“All of these will help customers to keep their things organized and within reach,” Li said.

Business class is getting a whole new look co-designed by Designworks, a BMW Group company.

Singapore Airlines’ current business-class offerings feature a color palette of gray, plum, and mauve. The redesigned business-class seats will also include gray, with new yellow, silver, and blue-black touches.

“Many cabins are going warm and more traditional right now, but we wanted this business class to stand on its own with its own attitude,” Designworks CEO Julia de Bono said.

She added that the “automotive-inspired seat” offers both structure and comfort, allowing passengers to “feel held without being constrained.” Passengers can save their preferred seat-positioning settings, similar to some cars.

For the first time, Singapore Airlines’ business class will include privacy doors.

Central seats configured next to each other in the cabin’s 1-2-1 layout will have electronically adjustable privacy dividers between them.

The footwell was relocated from the seat side to the center, allowing flyers to keep their legs straight instead of sitting or sleeping at an angle.

Li told reporters that moving the footwell to the middle of the seat was a highly requested change in the airline’s survey of 5,000 frequent flyers, which helped inform the overall design principles.

The new first-class suites can be configured as two separate spaces, or as one room with a two-seater sofa for people flying together.

Co-designed by PriestmanGoode, the suites’ central dividers span the full height of the room and can be adjusted to either partially or fully divide the space.

Singapore’s previous first class also had the option to combine two suites into one.

The two-seater sofa can fold out into the largest double bed in commercial aviation.

The full-flat double bed, which Singapore said is the industry’s largest, measures 60 inches wide and 80 inches long.

First-class cabins will also get new mattress toppers from the luxury bedding brand Paradies.

The new first-class seats allow passengers to sit across from each other at mealtimes.

The table can double as a workspace with a wireless-charging station.

First class will also feature a personal wardrobe and numerous storage spaces for luggage and personal items.

All cabins, from economy to first class, will be enhanced with a new KrisWorld in-flight entertainment system.

The new KrisWorld system will offer 4K high-resolution touchscreens, spatial audio, and Bluetooth audio pairing. Passengers will be able to access flight maps and wellness planners while continuing to watch their movies and TV shows from theaters and streaming services.

Singapore Airlines was already renowned for its luxury, but the award-winning carrier continues to innovate.

Singapore Airlines’ senior vice president of customer experience, Yeoh Phee Teik, said the airline is “continuously upping our game so that we stay a leader in this industry.”

• NASA says it’s heading back to the Moon and has its eyes on Mars — so it’s hiring.
• The job comes with a six-figure salary and some demanding work requirements.
• The last time the agency hired, 8,000 people applied. Only 10 people made the cut.

Are you looking for a new job and OK with a work commute of 140 million miles?

On Saturday, NASA announced that it had opened applications for its next astronaut candidate class — the first time the space agency has accepted applications for prospective astronauts since 2024.

The agency said it will help usher in the “Golden Age of innovation and exploration,” including missions to the lunar South Pole and, potentially, the red planet.

“The people we select could walk on the Moon, live and work at the Moon Base, and help pioneer the systems and operations that will ultimately carry crews to Mars,” Jared Isaacman, the agency’s administrator, said in a press release.

The bar is high: Applicants must be a US citizen with a completed Master’s degree in a STEM field — or an equivalent background, such as medical degrees, doctoral work, or test-pilot training. They also need three full years of relevant work experience.

“NASA seeks astronaut candidates who represent the best of American ingenuity, skill, and determination,” Anna Schneider, NASA’s Public Affairs Specialist, said in a statement. “They must demonstrate strong technical expertise, operational judgment, leadership, teamwork, communication skills, and the ability to perform demanding missions safely and effectively.”

NASA said it received over 8,000 applications during its last talent search. Only 10 applicants made the cut.

Successful applicants must pass drug tests, a background security investigation, vision testing, and other medical and psychiatric exams. They’ll also need to pass a water survival test and be willing to spend long stretches in hazardous and confined spaces.

They’ll get two years of training — and will be subject to “irregular hours,” receive an annual salary of $164,395, and can’t work remotely.

The agency expects to announce its new class in late 2027.

If you’re planning on applying, godspeed.

• Sarah Woodland was given two Miniature Shetland Ponies and wasn’t sure what to do with them.
• She started bringing the ponies into care homes after testing whether they could go indoors.
• Four years later, she has seven ponies and runs the business full time.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sarah Woodland, founder of Dinky Ponies. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Just after the pandemic, I started seeing two Miniature Shetland Ponies every single day in a field on my drive to work.

I’d worked taking care of other people’s horses as a groom — someone responsible for the daily care, health, management, and preparation of horses — for years, but I hadn’t worked extensively with Miniature Shetland Ponies before. For some reason, though, I’d always look for those small, sturdy ponies on my morning commute.

Wondering who they belonged to, I inquired about their owner and asked if I could come by to see them.

Long story short, a few months later, I was given those two ponies, not entirely sure what I was going to do with them.

I started a business with the ponies

I didn’t want them to just be field ornaments for the rest of their lives — they were horses that needed some sort of job to do. But the breed isn’t capable of doing too much due to their small size.

I messaged some of the mothers I knew to ask about their interest in stable management classes and sessions in handling the ponies.

Hitting what felt like constant barriers, I eventually managed to start hosting parties and one-to-one sessions in locations around me — like pub car parks and random fields.

Never having run a business before, I had to get to grips with organizing bookings, sending invoices, and managing a small business. It was a lot of admin to get my head around at the start.

By the end of my first summer of these sessions, I knew I had to find other work for the ponies because the weather would be changing and outside sessions weren’t going to work in the cold and rainy fall and winter.

Very randomly, I remember seeing a photo of a horse in an elevator and wondered if my ponies could be taken into buildings and up and down elevators.

To test it out, I called a friend who works at a children’s day care up the road from me and asked if I could bring one of the ponies into the building to see how it would cope indoors and with children.

There were no problems.

I started bringing the ponies to elder care facilities

Around the same time, I considered whether elder care homes would have budgets for me to bring the ponies in to mingle with elderly residents. I’ve never had experience in care homes, but imagined that being around the ponies would be a lovely treat.

I called a nursing home and asked if I could try it. I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but reckoned I would learn by trial and error.

The ponies coped, and the elderly residents absolutely loved the visit.

Four years later, I’m now taking my ponies (I have seven now) to care homes and residential homes to visit elderly people and children with special needs. It’s become my full-time job, and full-time passion.

I’ve faced a lot of unexpected challenges along the way. There was no model to follow and no blueprint to copy. Everything I’ve built, I’ve built myself, learning as I’ve gone along.

I had to learn from my mistakes

Of course, I’ve made mistakes too, but with mistakes comes learning, and every challenge has taught me something. I’ve learned what works, what doesn’t, what I’d do differently, and most importantly, how to keep moving forward.

As the ponies’ feet are quite slippery on laminate floors, I’ve finally found shoes for them that don’t look silly. I don’t like the idea of making the ponies look ridiculous, because they’re working animals and should be treated with respect.

When I take the ponies into a building, they totally trust me. They know I wouldn’t put them in a position where they’d feel unsafe. It’s the same when I take them into an elevator. I have given them positive reinforcement by giving them a little mint each time they go into the elevator. I must always remain calm because, in doing so, they too stay calm. They are intelligent animals that know whether I’m stressed or not and mirror my state.

Having not spent time in a care home, I suppose I wasn’t prepared for how much I would need to learn about what people living in care homes need. I’m now constantly learning to understand how people feel when they see the ponies. I’m learning what the right things to say are, and perhaps what things I shouldn’t say.

I’ve really enjoyed my conversations with people when I’m walking through with the ponies, and I find it hard to move on from a conversation when my hour of visiting is completed.

While I limit my visits to one hour for the ponies’ welfare, I revisit the care homes throughout the year so that different people have a chance to see the ponies. I would rather my visits include a limited number of people who get quality time to talk with me and interact with the ponies, rather than rushed “show-and-tell” sessions where residents only get a little time to pet the ponies before I move on.

I can’t figure out why the elderly love the ponies so much. They laugh, and sometimes they cry when they see them. You never know what the reaction will be. Perhaps there’s something about their tiny size that makes them appear young and foal-like, not realizing that they are all actually very old.

And of course, when we visit residential homes for children with special needs, or nurseries with young children, the children adore the ponies. I’ve taken my sons along to these visits, and have felt immensely proud watching them interact with the children as they guide the ponies.

I never thought this was what I’d be doing for work and with my life. It’s been incredibly hard and not hugely profitable, but equally fulfilling. I wouldn’t want to do anything else right now. I’m living my dream — making ponies and people happy all at once.

• I’ve never been without a camera on an overnight Amtrak train.
• I’ve never gone to bed without doing my whole skincare routine.
• I’ve never packed a pair of binoculars, but I will next time.

Comfort, ease, and enjoyment.

I pack for every overnight Amtrak trip with these three things in mind. And after 128 hours of experience, I’ve figured out the essentials for a fantastic experience.

I’ve traveled through 15 states, from the East Coast to the West, in Amtrak sleeper cars. I’ve stayed in roomettes — roughly 20-square-foot private cabins with two seats, two beds, a table, and a sink and vanity — and bedrooms, which are double the size and also include a full bathroom.

My packing list has evolved over the years. Some items have been with me since the beginning. Others come from lessons learned along the way.

I’ve been packing a comfy outfit separately from the rest of my clothes since my first overnight train ride.

You won’t catch me dressed to impress on an overnight train. I prefer to spend long days on the rails in my coziest garments.

But I don’t want to fish through my luggage to find them once on board. I make it easier on myself by putting a pair of sweatpants, a pair of basketball shorts, a soft T-shirt, and undergarments in a small packing cube at the top of my suitcase.

I’ve never boarded an overnight Amtrak train without video games.

Entertainment is everything when you’re stuck in place for dozens of hours. One thing that makes my cabin feel more like home is packing activities I often enjoy in my own living room. So I always pack my Nintendo Switch.

The portable console is thin enough to slide easily into a tight crevice in my bag. It’s loaded with all types of games to satisfy every mood, from “Animal Crossing” and various Pokémon titles to the “BioShock” series and “Red Dead Redemption,” to name a few.

I always have a journal on me.

I’ve only traveled solo on overnight trains, so I spend a lot of time thinking. I rarely make time for journaling in my daily life, but on trains I indulge in the opportunity to write out my thoughts uninterrupted. And the ever-changing view out the window is a constant source of inspiration.

My camera has been my sidekick since the beginning.

On overnight trains, I spend more time with my camera in hand than my phone.

You may be thinking, “Why not just use the camera on your phone?” And I have good reasons. For one thing, I don’t want to be limited by my phone’s battery life and storage space.

A long-haul train ride is visual overload. The view out the window is never the same as the last time you looked, and train car interiors are so distinctive compared to everyday indoor spaces that I want to photograph them from every angle possible.

As a photographer, I also prefer to manually control the settings and use multiple lenses to get more variety than I could with my phone. In fact, I usually bring two cameras on these trips.

I can’t imagine a long-haul train ride without noise-canceling headphones.

Every overnight Amtrak train I’ve taken has begun with an announcement requesting that all passengers use headphones to play audio — even behind the closed doors of their sleeper cabins.

I completely understand why. Sound travels far in a train car. I can often hear other people’s conversations in the room next to mine.

I use noise-canceling headphones to watch TV and movies, take phone calls, and listen to music and podcasts.

I’ve always made room in my bag for skincare products.

Amtrak roomettes and bedrooms have a sink and vanity inside. Bedrooms also have a full bathroom, while roomette passengers have access to shared toilets and showers in the sleeper car.

Replicating my skincare routine before bed in my tiny, moving hotel room makes me feel more at home on the rails.

After a little experience, I started packing waterproof clogs.

I’ll never forget my first thought when I opened the door to an Amtrak shower for the first time: “I don’t have the right shoes for this.”

Whether the shared shower in the car or my own in a bedroom, I won’t be barefoot on any train. After a couple of shower-free rides, I started bringing a pair of Crocs.

I highly recommend Crocs over flip-flops, especially if you’re traveling in the winter. Once dry, I find it’s easier to slip on my Crocs than lace up my kicks or boots every time I leave my room.

I forgot motion sickness medicine on my first two overnight rides, and I never will again.

My first two overnight train rides were 30-hour trips from NYC to Miami and back. But they felt longer.

There is nothing comfortable, easy, or enjoyable about motion sickness. Take it from someone who gets woozy at the sight of lapping bath water. Without medicine, both rides felt like uphill climbs. I couldn’t relax or stay present while enduring waves of dizziness. Honestly, the whole time, I just wanted to get off.

But now I pack Dramamine — the less drowsy version for daytime and the original for nighttime. I sleep easier and feel better throughout my trips. I can truly enjoy the ride. And I’m never in a rush to get off anymore.

I didn’t think to pack a pair of slippers until my most recent overnight Amtrak ride.

In February, I took the longest train ride in America — the 53-hour California Zephyr from Chicago to Emeryville, California.

It was also the longest train ride of my life so far by about 23 hours, so I thought it was worth packing a little extra comfort from home.

I wear these padded Muji slippers every day around my apartment. And they were thin and squishy enough to slip into my seemingly full bag with ease.

My slippers made my two-night stay feel a tad luxurious, and since they hardly took up any space, I’ll bring them on every overnight ride I take in the future.

My last overnight train essential is something I’ve never packed, but I will next time: binoculars.

I’ve probably had the thought at least once on every overnight train ride I’ve taken: “I want a closer view of the passing landscapes.”

But on my last trip on the California Zephyr, I thought about it at least a dozen times as we rode through forested mountains, deserts, and canyons. I spotted a few other passengers with binoculars and imagined what they were seeing — wildlife, distant valleys, and nature’s details, maybe.

From now on, I’ll bring my own, and I won’t have to wonder.