US intelligence says Chinese spy targeted Nvidia CEO
US agencies allege a Chinese intelligence asset with ties to a Singapore datacenter firm cultivated a relationship with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, prompting concern over access to AI chip information.
US intelligence officials have warned that Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, was approached by a Chinese intelligence asset who had previously done business with the chipmaker. The individual, identified as Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), is an executive at Singapore-based datacenter company Megaspeed and had been under surveillance after suspicion of smuggling Nvidia chips to China.
According to the New York Times, the surveillance revealed that Alice Huang developed a close relationship with Huang while seeking information about Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, which are subject to export restrictions imposed by the Trump administration for national-security reasons. White House officials expressed concern about the CEO’s access to the suspect because of his frequent interactions with senior government figures.
Nvidia responded that the CEO’s meetings with Alice Huang were routine. > "Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year," a company spokesperson told the New York Times. The statement added that Megaspeed and similar customers receive only ordinary business information and no sensitive trade secrets or data relevant to national security.
The report underscores ongoing U.S. efforts to monitor foreign attempts to obtain proprietary AI technology and enforce export controls on high-performance chips.