It all started with a friendly gesture amplified to the point of delirium. At the beginning of the year, billionaire Jensen Huang (63 years old) stopped for a few minutes at a modest fruit stand in Shanghai to buy some oranges. A few photographs and videos uploaded to social networks were enough for the shopkeeper to see how, in a matter of hours, his business became a place of pilgrimage for numerous residents of China's economic capital.
Local television stations traveled to that market to record how curious people came to buy the same products that the "godfather of AI" had taken, as many refer to Huang in the Asian country. The businessman is the founder and CEO of Nvidia, which dominates the market for advanced graphics processors, a strategic industry for Beijing in the midst of a technological race with the United States. But there, among fruit stalls, the billionaire was feted like a folksy celebrity, more interested in trying local products than in talking about semiconductors.
The man who for years has been welcomed in China as a rock star is now at the center of one of the biggest espionage scandals to have rocked Silicon Valley. Huang has acknowledged having had an extramarital affair with a Chinese businesswoman whom the US intelligence services consider a spy for Beijing. The revelations have opened an investigation within the company. President Donald Trump himself assured on Monday that the FBI was also investigating the case. The Republican leader revealed that he had personally spoken to Huang to ask if he knew that his lover could be a Chinese spy. "He told me he had no idea, and I really believe him," he explained.
The scandal now calls into question the close ties that Huang has cultivated with China, a country where the tycoon enjoys extraordinary popularity and whose market he has been defending for years against the restrictions imposed from Washington.
Let's return to the social networks of the Asian giant. This year, other images of Huang riding a bicycle through Shanghai went viral, buying roasted chestnuts at a street stall and giving a saleswoman a New Year's red envelope with 600 yuan in cash - about 80 euros in exchange -, a gesture loaded with symbolism in local culture.
The spotlight followed the American businessman of Taiwanese origin to Shenzhen, where he invited several companions to dinner at a popular hotpot chain. The restaurant also benefited from the inadvertent publicity provided by its famous client.
In May, Huang landed in China again. This time it was in Beijing, part of the procession of American magnates who accompanied President Donald Trump during his state visit. And, as is becoming customary every time he sets foot in the country, the Nvidia boss soon became viral material.
The networks were filled with videos of Huang standing at the entrance of a restaurant on a shopping street, eating a bowl of zhajiangmian, the popular Pekingese noodles bathed in a thick sauce of fermented soy, vegetables and meat. The restaurant, quick to think, did not waste the visit: shortly after Huang left, it was already promoting a special menu inspired by the businessman, which became the restaurant's best advertising claim.
The viral visits by the head of Nvidia well summarize a phenomenon that has endured in China for decades: the almost reverential fascination aroused by technology billionaires. And Huang quickly learned the rules of the Chinese cultural game. On his trips to the country, he appears in public in traditional clothing, hits the streets, participates in local celebrations and makes an effort to speak some Mandarin in front of the cameras.
But behind the oranges, noodles and red envelopes there is much more than a calculated public relations strategy. Huang has for years cultivated a particular business love affair with China that contrasts with the growing technological hostility between Beijing and Washington. While the last two US administrations raised barriers to prevent the Asian giant from accessing the most advanced semiconductors, the founder of Nvidia became one of the main defenders of keeping the doors of the Chinese market open.
Business, love and espionage
Huang's argument has been the following: prohibiting China from purchasing American processors will not prevent it from developing AI, but will accelerate the emergence of domestic alternatives. The businessman maintains that trade restrictions are pushing Chinese technology giants to abandon Nvidia products and bet on local competitors like Huawei. Isolating China, as he has stated on more than one occasion, means giving up a multi-billion dollar business and, in addition, losing Washington's technological influence.
In April 2025, just days after the US tightened controls on H20 processors, designed specifically to meet US limitations, Huang traveled to Beijing and met with Vice Premier He Lifeng. The businessman insisted on his willingness to continue cooperating with the country's companies. His message was received with great satisfaction by the Chinese authorities, who have long denounced American attempts to slow down their technological development.
His proximity to Trump has allowed him to personally advocate for a relaxation of export controls. In December of last year, the US Government ended up authorizing the sale of H200 processors, Nvidia's most powerful, to Chinese customers. According to a study by the American consulting firm IDC, specialized in analyzing the technology market, Nvidia controlled 34% of the Chinese market for AI processors for data centers during the first half of 2026, while its major local competitor, Huawei, had already reached 28%.
Now, the scandal with the alleged spy Alice Huang adds a much more delicate dimension to that particular love and business relationship with China. The businesswoman, also known by her Chinese name Huang Le, was an executive at Megaspeed, a data center company based in Singapore that is being investigated by US authorities for alleged smuggling of advanced chips to the Asian giant.
According to information published by the Financial Times and The New York Times, US intelligence services suspect that Alice was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security, Beijing's main intelligence agency, to obtain information from the head of Nvidia. Huang has acknowledged the infidelity, but it has not been proven that he provided trade secrets or sensitive information to the businesswoman. Spokesmen for the Chinese Executive rejected the accusations of espionage on Monday.
The revelations are compromising because Alice's businesses are directly related to the technology that Huang has been trying to sell to China for years. According to the Financial Times on Tuesday, in early 2025 the businesswoman and her partner Kang Wei looked for investors to finance a data center project in Southeast Asia valued at several hundred million dollars. During the presentations, both boasted that they would have no problem obtaining the coveted Nvidia GPUs and mentioned Alibaba as one of their clients. The Chinese company also maintained important financial and commercial ties with Megaspeed.
Southeast Asia has become a possible way to avoid US restrictions on the sale of advanced chips to China. Megaspeed would have purchased Nvidia equipment for billions of dollars to set up data centers in countries like Malaysia. Washington is investigating whether some of those processors ended up entering China illegally, something the company denies.
The New York Times has also revealed that the Commerce Department's investigations into Megaspeed were halted after Nvidia's chief legal counsel contacted investigators, claiming he had authorization from a senior Trump Administration official. The file ended up in the hands of the Department of Justice. The episode has fueled suspicions about the technology giant's influence in Washington.
