Nvidia's Madison Huang Cancels Korea Trip Ahead of AI Day Seoul
Nvidia's Madison Huang called off her Korea trip for family reasons, a day before arrival. The Seoul AI Day event goes ahead without her.
Madison Huang, Nvidia's senior director of product marketing for Omniverse and robotics, has abruptly canceled a planned trip to South Korea, a day before she was due to arrive. Huang, the eldest daughter of Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, was scheduled to land on Sunday, November 8, to attend Nvidia AI Day Seoul 2026 at the COEX convention center on November 9 and 10, and to meet South Korean government officials.
South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT confirmed on November 7 that the visit was off, which also cancels a meeting scheduled for November 8 with Deputy Prime Minister and Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon. The reason given was family reasons, with no further detail. The event itself will go ahead, though parts of the program have been canceled.
The trip would have been her third to South Korea this year. In April she toured the country's physical AI ecosystem, and in August she visited LG Electronics' Data Factory in Seoul to discuss robotics partnerships. Her role covers product and technology marketing for Omniverse, Nvidia's virtual-world platform, and for the company's robotics business.
The cancellation comes days after the Financial Times reported that U.S. officials wrote a memo earlier this year, based on intelligence reporting, saying Jensen Huang had been romantically involved with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data center operator Megaspeed, whom U.S. intelligence believes was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security. The memo has not been made public, and no charges have been brought against either person.
The memo does not accuse Jensen Huang of knowingly assisting Chinese intelligence, and U.S. officials have said there is no evidence he was aware of any alleged intelligence links. Nvidia has said his dealings with Megaspeed were ordinary business relations and that the company shares no sensitive information with customers. Nvidia, the White House and the CIA declined to comment on the memo. The New York Times first reported on October 29 that U.S. intelligence had identified Jensen Huang as the target of a Chinese spying operation.
Korean outlets reporting the cancellation note that no link has been established between the trip and the allegations, while some in the industry speculate the reports may have influenced the decision. The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee has asked Jensen Huang to attend a closed-door briefing on November 18, and three senior House Republicans made a similar request in a letter dated November 4.
For Nvidia's robotics business, the immediate consequence is limited: AI Day Seoul proceeds without her. But the episode shows how quickly a security controversy around the world's most valuable chipmaker can reach its robotics operations -- and the people who run them.