The story emerged for the first time at the end of October, when the New York Times revealed in an exclusive investigation that Jensen Huang - CEO and co-founder of Nvidia, one of the most important companies in the world in the field of semiconductor and artificial intelligence chip production - had ended up in the sights of an alleged Chinese spy. In detail, Huang had established a close relationship with a Chinese citizen and chip buyer, who according to US authorities was collecting intelligence for Beijing. To delve deeper into what happened, however, it is necessary to know the identity of the two subjects of the story.
According to what was revealed by the New York Times, the woman - known as Alice Huang - claims in her biography to have worked in China before becoming a top manager at a Singapore-based data center company, Megaspeed. That same company has become Nvidia's main buyer in Southeast Asia: since July 2024 it has bought almost $5 billion in chips. Last month Jensen Huang assured that there was nothing problematic in his relationship with Alice Huang, and that his interactions with the woman were related to the Singapore company and were "completely normal".
Jensen Huang is, as mentioned, the CEO and co-founder of Nvidia. Born in Taiwan and moved to the United States as a child, he has been married to Lori since 1985. Huang himself credited his wife as the reason he built the company. The couple's two sons both work for Nvidia. In recent years the company has become one of the most highly valued in the world, particularly for the chips it produces that are at the center of the artificial intelligence boom in the United States. Huang has become a well-known face in American society and also an ally of Donald Trump.
Once the identity of the subjects of this story has been clarified, it is possible to delve deeper into what has happened in recent years: Megaspeed was born in 2023, when a Chinese online gaming company separated its subsidiary in Singapore. Shortly before, the American government had issued the first tender for the sale of AI chips to Beijing. At that time, Alice Huang was listed as the company's managing director and shortly thereafter as CEO. As mentioned, Megaspeed began buying large quantities of chips from Nvidia, and in that period the woman and Jensen Huang began spending time together.
Their relationship, the New York Times explains, has become a cause for concern for the United States, which was already on alert due to the huge orders placed by Megaspeed. The government began surveilling Alice Huang more than a year ago, and over time they gathered information: officials who had access to the intelligence said they were sure there was a relationship between the two. And last spring Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, issued a classified memo on the case that indicated that Alice Huang had been recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to target Jensen Huang.
This brings us to the last few weeks, when the news of the surveillance carried out by American intelligence on Alice Huang's operations became public knowledge. And the desire of Congress to summon Jensen Huang to testify about what happened, perhaps under oath, eliminated the Nvidia manager's room for movement: the CEO admitted that he had been unfaithful to his wife and in a message to employees he wrote: "I owe my family and all of you an apology."
Meanwhile, the Nvidia board of directors, as mentioned at the beginning, has opened an investigation into Jensen Huang and his relationship with the woman. However, for the board "there are no reasons to believe that national security or Nvidia's secrets have been compromised", but "we will examine all available information". The company note then stated that Huang "supports the investigation and is committed to cooperating". The CEO will remain in place during the investigations: "The news will not slow down Nvidia. Jensen is committed to continuing to lead it as CEO without interruption," a company spokesperson said.
The Singaporean company involved in this affair, Megaspeed, has made it known that it is "not interested in media trials" based "on nothing". While China once again defined the press reports as "baseless". "We have already expressed our opinion on the matter. The story of an alleged Chinese spy is nothing more than baseless defamation and slander," said Guo Jiakun, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, during a press briefing.
The president of the United States himself defended Jensen Huang: "I have not spoken" to the CEO of Nvidia, but "he is a good person, he has done a fantastic job for our country", said Donald Trump. The tycoon added that he would take him with him on his trip to Asia, but said he didn't know "if he will come". Furthermore, Trump believes that Jensen Huang should remain at the helm of the company: to those who questioned him about it, the president replied: "Yes, definitely."
Michael McCaul, Republican lawmaker from Texas and vice chair of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, commented on
