Who is Huang Le, the "heroine" in the Jen-Hsun Huang incident?

Today, their relationship has become a focal point in the global geopolitical competition between the Chinese and American governments for dominance in artificial intelligence. The relationship has also rocked the technology industry on both sides of the Pacific, drawing widespread attention and bringing to light some usually unknown details of the fierce technology race, including espionage tactics and the human frailties of key players like Jen-Hsun Huang who shape the artificial intelligence industry.

The meeting in Singapore suggested that Huang's relationship with Huang goes back further than previously known. It also reflects the close personal and business ties that China and the United States have built over years of scientific and technological cooperation, and how these relationships have endured despite growing geopolitical tensions between the two countries over the past decade.

The New York Times first reported Huang’s dealings with Megaspeed and Huang Le last year. Last month, The New York Times reported that U.S. officials had concluded that Huang Le was a Chinese intelligence operative and had developed a close relationship with the head of Nvidia, although President Trump took no action after being briefed on the matter last year. Last week, the New York Times reported that Huang Le was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to engage in espionage. On Sunday, Huang, 63, admitted to having an extramarital affair with her, and Nvidia said it was launching an internal investigation.

Many details of the pair's relationship remain unclear, including when they met and when Huang Le may have been recruited by Chinese intelligence agencies. But Huang's work at Megaspeed put her at the heart of a massive operation across Southeast Asia. The operation aims to obtain large quantities of artificial intelligence chips and provide Chinese companies with access to the technology.

The New York Times verified Huang Le's photos on social media and found that she and Huang had met in many places around the world over the past three years, including Shanghai, Nvidia's headquarters in Silicon Valley, a golf resort south of San Jose, California, and Taiwan.

After meeting in Singapore in 2023, Huang Le used his experience and connections in Shanghai's financial community to gradually break into the technology circle. She worked with a long-time business partner to grow Megaspeed into a significant buyer of Nvidia technology. The business partner is often introduced as her husband.

This success attracted the attention of the authorities. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce sent an official to conduct an on-site inspection of the company. The Taiwanese government monitored her during her visits to Taiwan, including her public appearances with Huang. She was banned from leaving Singapore for part of 2025 due to an investigation.

Behind Megaspeed is a network of wealthy Chinese tech investors with ties to the country's data centers, government and defense industries. Between 2024 and 2026, the company purchased billions of dollars worth of Nvidia's advanced artificial intelligence technology, bringing Huang Le further into Huang Renxun's circle.

Many details about Huang Le have never been reported before, and the information comes from a New York Times analysis of 15 years of company documents and interviews with more than a half-dozen people and government officials familiar with Huang Le and his business.

Huang Le did not respond to a request for comment. Nvidia and Megaspeed declined to comment. China denies the espionage accusations.

Financial career

For many years, Huang Le's life has revolved around Shanghai's bustling financial circle. According to people who have met her, she is comfortable dealing with technology executives in both China and the United States.

In China, Huang Le had a close relationship with a business partner named Kang Wei. The 51-year-old fund manager has been introduced to Chinese investors and Megaspeed employees as Huang Le's husband, according to people familiar with the matter. The New York Times was unable to verify whether the two were indeed married.

Conway rose to prominence at a young age and became known as a shrewd stock market strategist in the 2000s. China's financial media hailed him as a teenage prodigy. In the 2010s, he began to get involved in private equity investments, including investing in online gaming companies.

China's securities regulator has fined Kangwei at least twice for failing to disclose his holdings in listed companies, according to regulatory filings. He also fought with other investors for control of the company. A person familiar with the matter said that Conway had flaunted Huang’s relationship with Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and used the relationship to raise funds for their ventures.

Conway did not respond to a request for comment.

Like Kang Wei, Huang Le's career is mainly concentrated in the financial field. According to her online resume, she worked as a reporter for a television station for four years before working at HSBC Private Bank and CITIC Securities, an investment bank with a Chinese state-owned background.

She made occasional public appearances with Kang Wei. A photo from August 2023 shows that the two visited a state-owned automotive technology company in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing.

The earliest company record bearing Huang Le's name dates back to 2010. It is a small "sports and leisure club" company registered at Beihu No. 9, a private golf club in Beijing. It's a club frequented by officials, with themed saunas, saunas and a buffet including foie gras, hairy crabs and Haagen-Dazs ice cream.

Over the next few years, Huang Le expanded his business and invested in a Chinese medical equipment manufacturer that was later listed in Hong Kong. Company records show she acquired the shares through an offshore company.

By 2020, Huang Le and Kang Wei were well known in some Shanghai investment circles. They operate a network of interconnected companies that they use to acquire and invest in companies. That spring, their network won a major project to participate in the construction and operation of Internet giant Tencent's artificial intelligence computing center in Shanghai.

This laid the foundation for Huang Le's next move: expanding overseas to obtain key chips.

Building Megaspeed

At the end of 2022, the U.S. government began to impose restrictions on the sale of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China. The United States fears these components could give Beijing an economic and military advantage.

To have any hope of obtaining the chips, the company must be registered outside China and have no obvious ownership ties to China.

In 2023, Huang Leli used a British Virgin Islands company to acquire the Singapore subsidiary of an online gaming company. The company is associated with her Shanghai-based network and is called 7Road. It was renamed Megaspeed. This will be her first major foray into the chip field.

Megaspeed was transferred to a Singapore shell company later that year, Singapore records show. People familiar with the matter said that after the transfer, Huang Le still controlled Megaspeed's daily operations.

By June 2024, Huang Le's relationship with Huang Renxun was close enough that she boasted about her access to Huang Renxun at a technology event in Taipei. Parker Schmidt, who attended the event, recalled that just after midnight, she was socializing with a group of technology executives and asked Jen-Hsun Huang to join them.

"She said, 'I bet I can get Jason here,' and Jason showed up immediately," said Schmidt, CEO of data software provider NetThunder. Soon after, Huang arrived and drank a glass of whiskey with the group.

A person close to the company said Huang was with two other Nvidia executives and had planned to attend the party.