U.S. intelligence officials concluded that a Chinese businesswoman with a close relationship to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was passing information to Beijing, and the White House took no action after being briefed, according to a new report from The New York Times.
The executive, Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, is a Chinese citizen and a top official at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company. American officials had already suspected she was helping China evade U.S. restrictions on advanced artificial intelligence chips. Surveillance later led officials to conclude she was a Chinese intelligence asset and revealed her close relationship with the Nvidia chief, the Times reported.
The discovery 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 Trump, set off alarms at the White House, according to the report.
President Trump was briefed on the findings roughly a year ago and chose not to act, the Times reported. The paper said Trump has been wary of disrupting Nvidia’s chip sales, which have helped drive the economy and stock market, and of complicating trade relations with China. Trump is scheduled to visit China next month.
When Trump was first briefed, officials did not believe Jensen Huang knew of Alice Huang’s alleged intelligence role. But some senior administration officials now doubt he could have remained unaware, according to the report. Jensen Huang has not received a defensive briefing, the kind of warning sometimes given to Americans targeted by foreign intelligence services.
Nvidia denied any wrongdoing. “Jensen’s interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected,” spokesperson John Rizzo said. “Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job.” Rizzo added that customers like Megaspeed receive ordinary business information and “zero information relevant to national security.”
Megaspeed said it has retained outside counsel to conduct an internal investigation and is cooperating with the U.S. government. Alice Huang did not respond to requests for comment.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington called the allegations part of a campaign of “groundless smears and slanders.” The White House, CIA and National Security Agency declined to comment.
Surveillance of Alice Huang continues, and companies affiliated with her purchased Nvidia chips again this year, according to the Times.
The U.S. has been investigating Megaspeed since late 2024, when a Commerce Department official visited its data center in Malaysia and found Nvidia equipment still packed in boxes. That investigation has since been handed to the Justice Department. Megaspeed rents computing power to Alibaba and other Chinese companies, and its Malaysian sister company bought at least $4.8 billion in advanced AI equipment containing Nvidia technology between June 2024 and February 2026.
Jensen Huang has successfully lobbied the administration to loosen restrictions on chip sales to China and negotiated a deal giving the U.S. government a 25% cut of certain chip sales there.
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