US agencies say Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by a suspected Chinese spy

Surveillance of the Megaspeed executive

US officials concluded that Alice Huang, a senior executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company, was acting as a Chinese intelligence asset and passing information to Beijing, according to The New York Times, which cited people briefed on the matter. Huang, also known as Huang Le and identified as a Chinese citizen, had come under scrutiny because she was suspected of helping steer advanced Nvidia AI chips to China. The probe into Megaspeed began in late 2024, after an official from the Commerce Department visited the company's data center in Malaysia and found the site suspicious. Investigators reportedly saw Nvidia equipment still in its boxes, which suggested the hardware was being moved in or out rather than installed.

Surveillance then revealed that Huang had built a close relationship with Jensen Huang, Nvidia's chief executive, and the two reportedly appeared together at business dinners. Singapore authorities questioned Alice Huang in 2025 but later let her go. The US Justice Department took over the case this year, and American authorities then placed both Megaspeed and Alice Huang under surveillance.

Alarm at the White House and Trump's response

The finding that Beijing was receiving reports from someone with direct access to Jensen Huang, one of the most powerful figures in the AI industry and an influential ally of President Donald Trump, set off alarms at the White House. The Times reported that Trump was briefed on the intelligence roughly a year before the report and chose not to act on it. The paper said he has been wary of disrupting Nvidia's chip sales, which help drive the economy and the stock market, and of further complicating trade with China. Officials told the paper that the close ties between Jensen Huang and Trump have hindered efforts to limit chip sales to China. The White House, the CIA and the National Security Agency declined to comment. Jensen Huang was reportedly not warned in advance that foreign intelligence was targeting him.

Nvidia and Megaspeed respond

Nvidia said there was nothing unusual about the interactions between its chief executive and Alice Huang. Its spokesperson, John Rizzo, according to LaSexta, said the contacts were part of the job of a chief executive.

“Meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year.”

Nvidia described Megaspeed as no different from its other regional customers and said it had earlier investigated claims that the company smuggled chips into China and could rebut them. It said Megaspeed and similar customers receive ordinary business information, not trade secrets, and nothing relevant to national security. Megaspeed told the Times that it takes the matter extremely seriously, has assigned someone to examine it internally, and has told the US government it is willing to cooperate. The Chinese embassy in Washington called the reporting a smear campaign against China.

Chip purchases and export restrictions

US authorities suspect that some chips bought by Megaspeed entered China illegally. Citing commercial records, the Times reported that a company linked to Megaspeed in Malaysia bought at least $4.8 billion in advanced AI equipment incorporating Nvidia technology between June 2024 and February 2026. The Trump administration has restricted exports of advanced AI chips to China on national security grounds, and officials reportedly suspected Megaspeed of helping get around those limits. The previous administration had already suspected the company of helping China reach Nvidia chips.