Nvidia Corp. pushed back on October 29 against a New York Times report alleging that U.S. intelligence agencies surveilled a person close to CEO Jensen Huang over concerns she was a Chinese intelligence asset1,3.
The report, citing people briefed on intelligence surveillance, centers on Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), an executive linked to Singapore-based data center operator Megaspeed. Alice Huang is of no relation to Jensen Huang. U.S. officials believe she maintained a close relationship with Jensen Huang to pass intelligence to Beijing, according to the New York Times5.
Nvidia's rebuttal
An Nvidia spokesperson said Jensen Huang's interactions with Alice Huang were neither unusual nor unexpected. "Meetings with customers are part of a C.E.O.'s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year," the spokesperson told the New York Times. Nvidia described Megaspeed as one of the company's regional cloud customers.
Nvidia said the U.S. government had not briefed the company on Alice Huang and that diversion allegations against Megaspeed were "investigated and debunked" last year. The company also said customers do not get access to Nvidia trade secrets or relevant national security information.
Megaspeed's export-control history
The espionage allegations sit alongside a separate export-control thread. A U.S. Commerce Department official reportedly visited a Megaspeed data center in Malaysia about two years ago and found GPUs stored in boxes rather than installed in server racks, raising suspicions the chips were being prepared for shipment elsewhere. The Commerce Department subsequently launched a probe into the company.
The New York Times conducted its own investigation, visiting Megaspeed's headquarters in Singapore and reviewing corporate documents. The paper found that the company's Singapore director, who appears to be its owner, lives in China. Alice Huang was at one point listed as managing director of Megaspeed.
TechCrunch separately reported that a top executive of a Singapore AI cloud company had been accused of illegally selling Nvidia chips to China and could also have been a Chinese spy, citing sources who spoke to the New York Times2.
Policy proximity
The report carries added weight because Jensen Huang is influential at the White House on technology policy and has developed a close relationship with President Donald Trump. Nvidia said the Chinese government blocked U.S. AI chips, protecting its own industry, and that Beijing is not seeking Nvidia products from regional clouds like Megaspeed.
Nvidia wrote off about $4.5 billion in Chinese-tuned AI chips last year, and Chinese regulators prevented imports of Nvidia's H200 chips even after the U.S. government cleared the chip for shipment to China earlier this year.
ANALYSIS The convergence of espionage allegations and export-control concerns around a single intermediary puts pressure on Nvidia's compliance posture at a time when the company's CEO holds direct policy access to the White House.