US Intelligence Says Chinese Spy Recruited to Target Nvidia CEO

The New York Times reported that China’s Ministry of State Security recruited a woman identified as Alice Huang or Huang Le to spy on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. The operative, who served as managing director of Singapore-based Megaspeed until at least 2023, was tasked with obtaining details about Nvidia’s most advanced hardware and encouraging Huang to lobby for the export of high-performance GPUs to China.

According to the newspaper, the operation began in 2024, when both Huang individuals were photographed together and Megaspeed entered a rapid expansion phase. U.S. authorities have placed the woman under surveillance for at least a year.

“To many in the industry, the well-funded push by Megaspeed into AI appeared to come out of nowhere,” the Times noted.

The report adds that Megaspeed has ties to the Chinese military through an investment in a cybersecurity subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group and that the spy also maintained contacts with leaders of Taiwanese hardware maker Gigabyte, a major assembler of Nvidia chips. Megaspeed builds data-center facilities in Southeast Asia using Nvidia chips and rents capacity to Alibaba, a strategy the Times says may help circumvent U.S. export controls.

Jensen Huang later petitioned President Donald Trump in 2025 for expanded GPU exports to China and secured a limited deal for a second-tier chip, while the most powerful AI GPU line, Blackwell, remains barred from export. Huang has argued that limited sales pressure Chinese competitor Huawei.

Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo told the Times that the company does not share classified information with customers and that customers do not request lobbying of the president for export deals. He said the Chinese government “consistently promoted its own domestic alternatives, including Huawei, and strictly limited imports of our data-center products.”

A Chinese embassy spokesperson called the reports “unsubstantiated” and “nothing but smears against China.” The alleged spy did not respond to requests for comment, and U.S. intelligence agencies declined to comment.