US probed Chinese spy plot targeting Nvidia CEO
Original: US investigated Chinese spy plot aimed at Nvidia CEO
Why This Matters
Shows how US chip export battles are now triggering counterintelligence operations.
US intelligence surveilled Alice Huang, a top Megaspeed executive, for ~1 year over concerns she cultivated close ties with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to gather intelligence on chip export strategy.
Anonymous sources told the New York Times that Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), a senior executive at Singapore-based AI cloud firm Megaspeed, may have acted as a Chinese spy. US intelligence agencies monitored her for roughly a year, concerned that her proximity to Jensen Huang gave her access to Nvidia's internal plans—specifically the CEO's efforts to persuade the Trump administration to ease export restrictions on advanced chips to China.
Photographs placed Alice Huang alongside Jensen Huang at multiple business dinners in the Singapore region. The worry was that the relationship went beyond ordinary customer contact.
Nvidia pushed back. A spokesperson told TechCrunch: "Jensen's interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a C.E.O.'s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year." The company added that regional cloud customers receive "ordinary business information—not sensitive NVIDIA trade secrets—and zero information relevant to national security."
This follows a 2025 New York Times report that the Commerce Department investigated Megaspeed for allegedly helping Chinese companies circumvent AI chip export controls by reselling restricted Nvidia hardware.