Perhaps the most difficult aspect of that probe will be an examination of the multiple questionable statements made by Jensen Huang and his company since 2025, when reporters first began asking about the relationship between Megaspeed and Nvidia.

In October 2025, The New York Times reported that Jensen and Alice had been seen drinking together at an industry event in 2024. A company spokesman said at the time that the meeting was nothing untoward: “When Jensen is available, [customers] may ask him to visit to provide updates on the market.”

In December of 2025, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. government was investigating Megaspeed and whether the company had illegally diverted Nvidia chips to China, in contravention of an export ban. The company denied its relationship with Megaspeed was questionable, saying it is “a cloud service permitted under the export control rules.”

In October 2026, Jensen Huang again made an on-the-record statement about his relationship with Alice Huang: “Our relationship, our interactions, have been related to Megaspeed, and it was all completely normal and not unusual.” 

The company told CNBC on October 29, 2026, that the allegations of evading export controls were unfounded: “The diversion allegations against this regional cloud were thoroughly investigated and debunked last year,” the spokesperson said.

Jensen Huang has now admitted to employees in an email that, “I was unfaithful to my wife.” The admission raises potential national security concerns because Jensen Huang has frequent contact with President Trump. “While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, the board's inquiry will examine all available information,” the company said.

Nvidia’s shares were down 4.24% in overnight trading.

• Read Jensen Huang’s email to staff here.
• Read the statement from Nvidia’s board here.
• Jensen Huang’s kids are on his staff. - WSJ

HANGING OUT THERE

AI companies have $3.2 trillion in off-balance-sheet commitments that may (or may not!) ambush the market

Tech stocks stabilized on Friday, but the Nasdaq is still down 10.18% over the past 30 days. Some on Wall Street are worried that there may be more downside to come.

“There are lingering issues, including leverage that's now as big as the Telecom cycle [in the dotcom bubble] that keep us cautious on the AI infra trade. We expect continued choppiness,” Wells Fargo’s Ohsung Kwon said in a note last week.

How much leverage?

At credit ratings firm KBRA, Doug Colandrea and Andrew Giudici tried to estimate that by looking at commitments for data center leases, chip purchases, and the like, made by the big AI spenders that have not yet been written onto their balance sheets. They estimated that at the end of Q2, the hyperscalers had about $3.2 trillion in off-balance-sheet commitments.

Of course, because it is off-balance-sheet, it is by definition more difficult for investors to gauge its quality. “This off-balance-sheet debt could hold financial risk that existing debt figures alone don't fully capture. Since these companies have committed a substantial amount of their future spending, there's less room for them to change course later on,” KBRA told Fortune in a statement.

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‘AI rebounding’: Nearly 20% of U.S. workers replaced by AI are being asked back—now they’re demanding higher pay, job security and AI transparency - Joshua Hong

THE MARKETS

Tech stocks are poised to brush off Nvidia controversy

Last week was horrible for the S&P 500, which lost 4.3% peak to trough before recovering a little on Friday. This week looks more optimistic.

Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.2% this morning before the open in New York after overcoming a sharp wobble—down 1% at one point—on news that Nvidia was investigating its CEO’s relationship with a woman suspected of being a Chinese intelligence asset. Aside from that, traders seem to be brushing off the controversy. U.S. futures were up after markets in Asia and Europe broadly rose.

• S&P 500 futures were up 0.39% this morning. The index rose 0.31% on Friday. 
• In Europe, the Stoxx 600 rose 0.64% in early trading, and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 rose by 0.57% before lunch.
• Asia: South Korea’s KOSPI was down 0.81%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 2.33%. India’s Nifty 50 was up 0.23%. China’s CSI 300 was up 0.05%.
• Brent crude was $97 per barrel.
• Bitcoin declined to $74,074.

A much-needed statement of the obvious 

“Despite the turbulence this week, the total market cap of the U.S. stock market is still up $5 trillion since the beginning of the year, see chart below.”—Apollo Global Management’s Torsten Sløk:

The Fed won’t let a wobbly stock market get in the way of a December rate hike

Friday’s jobs report—the U.S. added 165,000 new nonfarm payrolls in October—came in way above expectations and all but guarantees the Fed will now raise interest rates again in December. If the labor market does not need the Fed’s help, then the Fed will pay more attention to fighting inflation.

The CME FedWatch futures index is pricing an 80% likelihood of the base rate going up to 4%. Before the jobs number, it was more of a coin flip. The strong labor market “certainly helps the case for a December Federal Reserve interest rate hike, expectations for which had slipped in recent days to make it close to a 50:50 call at one point,” ING’s James Knightley said in an email.

The Fed likely won’t be afraid of jolting the stock markets (traders dislike interest increases because they make new rounds of money more expensive to obtain), if this chart from Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Macroeconomics is anything to go by. It shows how big selloffs predict steep job losses. “The 5% peak-to-date decline in the S&P 500 is too small to suggest overall payrolls will decline,” Tombs said via email.

CHART OF THE DAY

AI investment is about to surpass that of the dotcom boom

“The current AI investment surge has surpassed the comparable stages of the 1970s oil and 2010s shale booms, leaving only the 1990s technology cycle ahead of it,” according to Liz Everett Krisberg and David Tinsley of the Bank of America Institute.

AI-related capital spending is roughly 1.2% of U.S. GDP, compared with about 1.5% during the 1990s tech boom, they say.

THE FRONT PAGES TODAY

Apple saves $2.7bn in taxes by booking profits in Singapore - FT

From supermarket fridges to passenger flights, a wave of threats is testing Europe’s defenses - CNBC

Republicans eye Florida's "alligator people" for 2028 - Axios

Five Takeaways From Trump’s ‘60 Minutes’ Interview - WSJ

Nvidia’s Data Center Vision Spurs Race to Reinvent Electric Transformers - Bloomberg

Trump Was ‘Only Kidding’ in Asking Dana White to Be His Press Secretary - NYT

Biden gives update on cancer ahead of memoir release - NY Post

ONE MORE THING

Canva cut 1,200 jobs, and the severance package is so generous the internet is applauding

Most layoff announcements draw anger. Canva’s is drawing applause. Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins announced that a restructuring will affect 1,271 employees, or 22% of the Sydney-based design company’s workforce. Her note to staff, which she also shared on LinkedIn, quickly became an online case study in how to cut jobs, largely because of what Canva is giving the people who leave.

Departing employees will receive at least six months’ salary, inclusive of statutory entitlements, regardless of location. On top of that, they’ll receive 12 months of continued healthcare coverage in countries where Canva already provides it. Other perks include career transition support, complete with one-on-one coaching, interview preparation, and a year of LinkedIn Premium. Employees leaving the company can also take their company MacBooks with them, and Canva is removing the one-year vesting cliff for people who joined in the past year.

It doesn’t stop there. Eligible departing employees can apply for $10,000 grants to pursue an idea, start a business or launch a project, without Canva taking any equity or ownership in what they create.

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