Does it all connect? Huang Lejing has connections with Huida’s biggest Chinese competitor

The extramarital affair between alleged Chinese spies Alice Huang and Jen-Hsun Huang continues to spread. (Reuters)

[Financial Channel/Comprehensive Report] Huang Le, who is said to be a Chinese spy, may have held equity interests in Chinese companies, and the data centers owned by these companies have business dealings with Huawei, indirectly benefiting Huawei, Huida's largest competitor in China.

CNBC reported that the connection between Huang Le and Huawei was first discovered by analysts from the private intelligence company Tesari. The company shared its findings exclusively with CNBC. Tesari uses artificial intelligence to gather evidence, specializes in national security investigations around the world, and provides intelligence research services to private industry and the U.S. government.

Brian Andersen, vice president of Tesari's national security applications department, said: "This activity emerged when we analyzed Huang Le's network and is worthy of launching a national security and (technological) non-proliferation investigation."

Anderson said that if the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security and Homeland Security Investigations find evidence that someone transferred "controlled equipment" to Huawei without authorization, they may face charges including export control violations, conspiracy and smuggling.

The relationship between Huang Le and Huawei is complicated. Tesari analysts told CNBC that based on their past investigative experience, they suspected that this arrangement was deliberately designed to cover up the relationship between the two parties.

This complex relationship, which has not been exposed before, may raise questions about Huang Le's intentions and behavior during their relationship with Huang Renxun, and whether Huang Renxun knew that the person he was having an affair with was closely related to Huawei. Huang Jen-Hsun has admitted to having an extramarital affair, but the exact time of his relationship with Huang Le is unclear.

Huang Le's case involved a series of intertwined enterprises and transactions, showing that she was connected to entities that ultimately provided computing power to China's Huawei. According to documents reviewed by "CNBC", companies related to Huang Le were once related to the business of providing Huida computing power to Huawei; and this period happened to be the time when she and Huang Renxun were first publicly witnessed in the same frame, which was in December 2023.

According to information compiled by Tesari and provided to "CNBC", Huang Le sold a cloud computing company called Osmanthus he held to a Chinese gaming company called 7Road in 2019. A subsidiary of 7Road was originally established in Singapore and was spun off in 2023 to form "Megaspeed". Megaspeed later became an important customer of Huida, helping to facilitate the shipment of at least US$7.5 billion of Huida chips to Chinese companies.

On the other hand, Huang Le became a co-owner of a financial company called Shanghai Hexi in 2016, which invests heavily in technology and data centers. In 2021, Hexi further acquired a 27% stake in a data center developer called Shanghai Century Longteng, which Hexi will hold until 2024.

Century Dragon holds a 50.1% controlling stake in a Chinese data center facility called Shenzhen Yifeng Technology Co. Ltd. The main customer of the data center is Huawei Cloud, a subsidiary of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. headquartered in Shenzhen, China.

Huang Le's Hexi Company also provided guarantees for financing loans required by the Shenzhen data center, which has business dealings with Huawei.

It is unclear whether the Shenzhen data center has the ability to obtain Huida GPUs, but the majority owner of the data center has been purchasing these chips since 2023. This company is called Zhejiang Century Huatong Group, and both parties jointly hold the equity of Century Longteng. This company is also the business partner of Huang Le's Hexi Company.

Huida said in 2024 that Huawei is one of its main competitors, especially in the field of artificial intelligence chips, including graphics processing units (GPUs), central processing units (CPUs) and network chips.