Who is Alice Huang, the businesswoman suspected of having seduced and spied on the boss of Nvidia?

The news hit like a bomb this weekend. In a letter addressed to his employees, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang admitted to having had an extramarital affair. “I was unfaithful to my wife. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” he wrote. If he claims to accept “the criticism that results from this”, he says nothing about the name of his partner. No matter, all eyes are on a certain Alice Huang. An enigmatic Chinese business leader, with whom the charismatic boss of Nvidia would have had a very close relationship.

Little information is known about Alice Huang, a Chinese woman also known as Huang Le. The only certainty is that if she has the same surname as the business manager, the two are not related. According to the New York Times, which cites sources informed of this supposed intelligence operation, Alice Huang has a good level of English and contacts in the highest echelons of the chip industry for artificial intelligence. An online search in Chinese provides some snippets of information about Alice Huang, with a photo. We see that she worked for the HSBC bank, but also as a journalist for the official Chinese television CCTV, and Hunan TV. However, AFP was not able to verify the veracity of this profile, which can be found on a Chinese database dedicated to investment funds, nor who is the author. The companies mentioned were nevertheless contacted.

However, it is with a completely different hat that she is known today. She is reportedly a senior executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center operator. A business which requires the acquisition of chips and constitutes a ready-made alibi to establish a relationship with Jensen Huang. According to the New York Times and the Financial Times, which cite a memo from the American intelligence services, Alice Huang was approached by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, Beijing's main intelligence service. Objective, to get closer to the boss of Nvidia and obtain a relaxation of the restrictions imposed since 2022 by Washington on exports of state-of-the-art chips to China.

A close relationship

A successful operation. In a photo taken during a tech world party in 2024 and published on LinkedIn, we can see the boss in the iconic black leather jacket sitting next to a woman dressed in pink, long hair and shiny jewelry, who would be Alice. The following year, the two participated in a dinner organized by Jensen Huang in a Chinese restaurant in Taipei on the sidelines of Computex, the largest tech convention in Taiwan. Journalists outside took images through the windows and glass doors of the establishment where we can see Jensen Huang, in a black t-shirt and jeans, as well as a woman in a pink outfit who again appears to be Alice Huang. In a live video of the event, Jensen Huang is filmed putting his arm around her, while she kisses him on the right cheek. Jensen Huang goes out to speak to the press, then enters the restaurant again. Alice Huang follows him, tracing his lower back with her fingers. They will leave the restaurant in the same car.