AI Companies Turn to Former Intelligence Officers as Nvidia Scandal Puts Security in the Spotlight

Artificial intelligence companies are hiring former intelligence operatives to help shield themselves from espionage, Reuters reports, a risk thrust into the spotlight by the scandal around Nvidia and its chief executive, Jensen Huang. Former intelligence officers, recruiters and company insiders told Reuters that chip, AI and technology firms, which have boomed in recent years on huge demand for artificial intelligence, have been quietly building up their security muscle.

The hiring is a new phenomenon at frontier AI firms, according to Revelio Labs, which tracks hiring trends. More explicit counterintelligence roles have been posted in the last couple of years by OpenAI, Anthropic and Nvidia, with most salaries ranging from $200,000 up to around $500,000. Top corporate security chiefs can earn far more: $1 million to $4 million a year depending on stock awards, according to specialist recruiter Kathy Lavinder, founder of SI Placement.

"The AI firms have snapped up a lot of security talent," said Christopher Falkenberg, a former US Secret Service agent and president of Insite Risk Management. "There are some very sophisticated people out of government thinking about security for these businesses... Demand outstrips the supply of people with relevant experience."

OpenAI and Anthropic build their defences

OpenAI appointed former National Security Agency director Paul Nakasone to its board and its safety and security committee in June 2024. The company is now hiring a senior global security investigator, with counterintelligence listed as a key skill.

The need became personal at OpenAI in October 2026, when the company fired an engineer after finding a recording device hidden behind a television in an executive conference room. The engineer pleaded not guilty on November 6 to illegally intercepting communications.

Rival Anthropic has moved in the same direction. It added former CIA deputy director David Cohen and former NSA cybersecurity director Dave Luber to the national security advisory council it launched in August 2025, and it is seeking a threat-intelligence security engineer to track sophisticated adversaries. Its job advertisement describes the company as "one of the most interesting targets in the world for nation-state and advanced criminal actors".

ASML wants a spy catcher in Taiwan

The trend reaches beyond the AI laboratories. ASML, Europe's most valuable listed company, whose chip-printing machines are a prize in the US-China technology rivalry, has built up its defences in recent years and set up an Intelligence Fusion Centre. It is currently advertising for an intelligence officer based in Taiwan, where its top customer, TSMC, makes chips for Nvidia.

The advertisement reads like a job for a character from a John le Carré spy novel, tasked with rooting out "insider threats" including espionage, sabotage and terrorism. Applicants need at least 10 years of counterintelligence experience. ASML hired Sebastian Reyn, a former deputy director of Dutch military intelligence, in 2024, and public filings show its broader security workforce has grown rapidly over the last decade. ASML declined to comment on its security arrangements.

Hans Horan, an analyst at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, told Reuters that ASML is "one of the more sophisticated companies on security risk, because it is constantly targeted".

What the spies actually do

Catherine Marinis-Yaqub, a former CIA officer now at Control Risks, said companies value counterintelligence experts for spotting threats such as employees stealing trade secrets and attempts to exploit vulnerabilities, including through executives, by blackmail or coercion. The work also helps executives spot threats that can look like chance encounters at gyms or coffee shops. "They're just becoming more aware of it. They still have a long way to go," she said.

Not everyone in the industry is convinced. Aernout Reijmer, ASML's former security chief, who left the firm in September 2025 and now heads cybersecurity collaboration business CyberAlloy, said: "I know many companies, I'd say 90%, completely ignore that risk, because the James Bond theme starts playing in people's heads straight away."

And hiring spies is no guarantee they will be heard. "Security teams don't have a veto," Lavinder said. "Executives will do what executives want to do."

The Nvidia drama behind the trend

The hiring spree has been thrown into sharp relief by the crisis at Nvidia. The company has been grappling with reports of two extramarital affairs involving Huang, one with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy. Huang has admitted one of the affairs. Nvidia opened an independent investigation and said it did not believe national security or company secrets were compromised. China has rejected the espionage allegations.

Since the Reuters report was published, the story has moved on: Huang resigned as Nvidia's chief executive on November 12, 2026, with chief financial officer Colette Kress taking over as interim chief executive. Read our full report on the resignation here: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Resigns, Colette Kress Named Interim CEO. For the full background on the scandal, see our timeline: Nvidia Jensen Huang China Chip Spy Scandal Timeline Explained.

Why it matters

The AI industry now holds technology as sensitive as anything in the defence world: the most advanced chips, the most capable models and the data that trains them. The companies built their empires with the open culture of Silicon Valley startups, and their security has lagged behind their importance. The hiring of former intelligence officers is the clearest sign yet that they know it, and that the Nvidia affair has turned a quiet worry into a boardroom priority.

Note: the Reuters report this article is based on was published on November 12, 2026, before Huang's resignation was announced. The resignation is covered in the linked Innopark IT report above.

Sources

• Reuters — Help wanted: AI firms court ex-spies as Nvidia drama spotlights security risks