China's Spy Agency Reportedly Recruited Aide to Target Jensen Huang

New details have emerged about an attempt by China to spy on NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. According to reports, the agency that recruited Alice Huang, an executive at the Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, was China's Ministry of State Security, the country's main intelligence agency and the rough equivalent of the CIA.

The matter first surfaced in late October, when a report claimed that China was using Alice Huang to spy on the head of NVIDIA. Now the organization behind the effort is said to be China's primary intelligence service. The picture that emerges bears directly on NVIDIA's top executive as well as on the broader US-China tension over AI chips.

The goal: insight into US AI plans

According to the reports, recruiting Alice Huang was part of China's effort to learn more about US artificial intelligence plans. China is also said to have hoped that she could gain influence over Jensen Huang and help him secure US government approval to send more advanced chips to China. The aim, in other words, was not only to collect information but also to indirectly shape decisions on chip exports.

The claim rests on a known reality: as CEO of the world's leading AI chip maker, Jensen Huang is said to be able to influence President Trump's decisions. He was reportedly the one who persuaded Trump to allow sales of certain chip models to China, and he is described as carrying real weight in US chip-sales policy.

US officials suspected a romantic relationship

Another report said US officials, relying on information from American intelligence, believed Jensen Huang was in a romantic relationship with Alice Huang. This is reported as the officials' belief; there is no confirmed information on whether such a relationship existed.

That information was passed to the president and some US officials before Trump's trip to Beijing this year, which he made together with the NVIDIA CEO and Elon Musk. Trump reportedly took no action on it. Jensen Huang, for his part, was not told that he was being targeted by the Chinese government.

Megaspeed: a big customer with disputed links

Megaspeed was an important NVIDIA customer and had bought billions of dollars' worth of AI chips from the company. The firm builds data centers in Southeast Asia and rented the computing power there to Alibaba. That arrangement gave the Chinese company access to advanced NVIDIA chips that are banned in its home country.

Reports have also linked Megaspeed's name to a scheme to smuggle advanced AI chips into China. However, NVIDIA's internal investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, so for now the smuggling connection remains an allegation.