US officials believe alleged Chinese spy targeted Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, report says
US intelligence agencies believe an executive at a Singapore data centre company, suspected of smuggling Nvidia chips to China, was a Chinese intelligence asset who built a close relationship with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, the New York Times reported. Nvidia says the contacts were ordinary customer meetings.
US officials have concluded that Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, an executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed, was acting as a Chinese intelligence asset passing commercial information to Beijing, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources. She is not related to the Nvidia chief executive.
Alice Huang had first come under US surveillance on suspicion of helping smuggle Nvidia's advanced AI chips to China in breach of American export restrictions. While monitoring her, officials found that she had developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang, according to the report. White House officials were alarmed by her access to him because of the close ties the Nvidia boss has built with President Donald Trump.
Nvidia rejected any suggestion of wrongdoing. "Meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year," a spokesperson told the Times, adding that customers such as Megaspeed receive "ordinary business information - not sensitive Nvidia trade secrets - and zero information relevant to national security".
The case touches one of Washington's most sensitive issues. Nvidia's chips are the backbone of the AI boom, and the US restricts sales of its most powerful models to China on national security grounds.