Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Jensen Huang was reportedly targeted by a Chinese espionage operation.
The New York Times today cited people familiar with the matter as saying that the ploy involved Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center operator. A Megaspeed executive named Alice Huang or Huang Le, who is of no relation to Jensen Huang, reportedly “developed a close relationship with Jensen.” U.S. authorities believe that she is a Chinese asset.
“Jensen’s interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected,” an Nvidia spokesperson told the Times. “Meetings with customers are part of a C.E.O.’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year.”
A U.S. Commerce Department official reportedly visited a Megaspeed data center in Malaysia about two years ago. The graphics processing units on the premises weren’t installed in server racks but were instead found in boxes. According to the Times, that raised suspicions Megaspeed was planning to ship the GPUs elsewhere. The Commerce Department subsequently launched a probe into the company.
The Times carried out an investigation of its own by visiting Megaspeed’s headquarters in Singapore and reviewing its corporate documents. The paper discovered that the company’s Singapore director, who appears to be its owner, lives in China. Alice Huang, in turn, was at one point listed as managing director of Megaspeed. The company reportedly removed her name from its corporate documents after the Commerce Department began its probe.
In June 2024, Alice Huang was photographed sitting next to Jensen Huang and other AI industry executives at a party in Taipei. A year later, she reportedly arranged for Megaspeed to purchase about $2 billion worth of GPUs from Nvidia. The Times’ sources stated that the chips were bound to data centers in Malaysia and Indonesia that appear to be used by customers in China.
The U.S. Justice Department took over the Commerce Department’s probe earlier this year. The U.S. intelligence community, in turn, reportedly conducted electronic surveillance of Alice Huang.
Intelligence officials briefed U.S. President Donald Trump about the matter last year. According to the Times, the officials believed that Jensen Huang didn’t know Alice Huang had been trying to gather information for China. Trump reportedly took no action in response to the briefing.
“Our regional cloud customers receive ordinary business information — not sensitive NVIDIA trade secrets — and zero information relevant to national security,” the Nvidia spokesperson said.
The chipmaker independently investigated whether any of the GPUs it had sold to Megaspeed may have ended up in China. “The diversion allegations against this regional cloud were thoroughly investigated and debunked last year,” Nvidia stated today.