> What happens if the law firm uncovers some spying?

First, IMHO, that's extremely unlikely for several different reasons. Practically, there's probably very little evidence to prove she did or didn't spy beyond checking Jensen's personal devices and accts for unauthorized access and sweeping for bugs. I highly doubt those will show anything because this kind of intelligence gathering isn't about 'sneak and peek' to access emails and files. Alice had much higher value in other ways: access, influence and background context. They wouldn't want to risk 'burning' her access by being caught or even raising suspicion, plus there's no indication Alice Huang was a trained spy (aka NOC field agent).

But more significant to me is it's unlikely Jensen ever fully trusted her. Not because he thought she might be a spy (although I'm pretty sure the thought probably crossed his mind), but because she was a board director and, until recently, the COO of a major NVidia customer anxious to gain favorable business terms and glean insight on NVidia GPU allocations for their data centers (and before that she was a journalist). Jensen isn't dumb and in his position, virtually everyone he meets wants something from him; whether info, insight or a favor. It's hard to appreciate just how much daily life is different if you're Jensen. For several years I was a skip level below the CEO of a high-profile F500 valley tech company. I've been on the core team on the jet with the CEO during an Asia trip packed with keynotes, key customer/govt mtgs, media and analyst interviews. Everyone wants something from the CEO (including every employee on his team). And Jensen is CEO of the most valuable company on earth, so all that's on steroids. He's learned to be guarded to some extent with everyone outside his immediate family and old friends.

> Does it have a good ending?

Well, it's obviously personally embarrassing and created a lot of family issues for Jensen. But it's very likely everything will be fine for Jensen professionally. Love him or hate him, there's no denying Jensen is a remarkably effective CEO, guiding NVidia from a startup to the biggest company ever over decades and through multiple near-death events. With that track record, he's banked a lot of forgiveness for personal lapses or minor transgressions. From the board perspective, these are the potential causes of action:

1. If Jensen was spied on, he's the victim not the wrongdoer.

2. He might have violated his non-disclosure agreement.

3. He might have 'failed to follow company IT policy regarding securing proprietary information.'

4. As a corporate officer and director he has a duty to act in the best interests of the shareholders.

5. He might have 'violated HR policy regarding inappropriate relationships.' In most companies those policies are almost entirely focused on employee-to-employee relationships and just the existence of a relationship can be a violation. When it comes to consensual relationships with an outside partner, vendor, customer or even competitor - if the policy addresses it at all - a relationship existing usually isn't a violation, absent evidence of actual undue influence or bias.

In short, this investigation probably ends with the board filing a reprimand or 'note of concern' for exercising poor judgement and Jensen promising to never let it happen again.

> But is this common?

Not especially common but there are a lot of companies and executives in the world, so it's not uncommon. The board has a fiduciary duty to the shareholders so to some extent this 'investigation' is pro forma as part of that.