Who is Alice Huang, woman at centre of Nvidia CEO probe?

Dubai: Alice Huang, a Chinese tech executive also known as Huang Le, sits at the centre of the scandal engulfing Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang. Media reports describe her as the woman accused of spying for China while having an affair with him. She has not been charged, and Beijing so far has rejected all claims.

There aren't too many details about here in the public domain, but she's reportedly a top figure at Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based data centre company. The New York Times and Financial Times who broke the story, describe her as a Chinese citizen without giving out her designation. The Times, citing people briefed on the surveillance, says she speaks good English and is well connected at the top of the global AI chip industry.

The New York Times reported on October 29 that she sought close ties with Huang to glean information about Nvidia’s technology. NBC News cites a person familiar with the matter who says US intelligence agencies judged her as a Chinese spy. The Times and the Financial Times reported she was under US surveillance and had been recruited by China’s top intelligence agency.

Little is known publicly about how the two met. A photo has now surfaced which appears to show Huang beside a woman believed to be Alice Huang, and both are said to have attended a dinner hosted at a Chinese restaurant.

Her employer is a major Nvidia customer. The Times reported that Megaspeed bought about $4.8 billion (Dh17.6 billion) of Nvidia equipment, making it one of the chipmaker’s largest buyers. Its website calls the firm a core partner of Nvidia’s computing power cloud business in Asia-Pacific.

The company was under scrutiny before this month. Singapore police are investigating suspected breaches of domestic laws, while the US Commerce Department examines whether it sidestepped export controls. Senator Tom Cotton earlier urged an investigation, describing it as a spin-off of a Chinese government-owned cloud company. Megaspeed says it follows all applicable regulations, including US export controls.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington denies any spying allegations. Singapore has pushed back too. The Wall Street Journal reported that Singapore’s intelligence agency suspected her of being an asset of China’s Ministry of State Security. The home affairs ministry says no such investigation was conducted in respect of Alice Huang. Police confirm the probe into Megaspeed itself continues.

Nvidia had earlier called the pair’s contacts not unusual and said it does not share classified information with customers. It noted that Huang meets thousands of customer executives every year.

The whole incident became a bigger focal point when Jensen Huang, decided to set the record straight and wrote a memo to Nvidia staff that he was unfaithful to his wife and offered no excuse. He did not name her specifically. The board launched an independent inquiry led by independent directors with outside counsel. It says it has no reason to believe national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised.

According to an Al Jazeera report, Washington has moved fast. House Republicans have asked Huang to testify on November 18, and Senator Elizabeth Warren said "he and the board owe Congress answers". President Trump played down the matter, calling Huang an honourable man.

The affair alone would not have drawn as much limelight, however, the alleged intelligence link, a customer buying billions of dollars of restricted technology and a US-China race over AI chips, has made the whole affair much murkier.