“The Chinese Woman Beside Jensen Huang Is a Chinese Spy”

[Financial News] A report has emerged that US intelligence agencies believe a Chinese businesswoman who had maintained a close relationship with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang acted as a spy for Chinese intelligence. She is suspected of trying to obtain information about advanced US artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor technology and to steer NVIDIA’s semiconductor supplies to China.
The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 6th (local time) that US intelligence agencies believe Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security and engaged in intelligence-gathering activities.
Alice Huang is believed to have approached Jensen Huang to gather information about US AI semiconductors and to persuade NVIDIA to supply advanced chips to China.
US intelligence agencies have been closely investigating the background and purpose of Alice Huang’s relationship with Jensen Huang. As the allegations have also drawn interest in Congress, three House committees have asked Jensen Huang to appear at a closed-door hearing at the end of this month.
Fluent in English, Alice Huang is said to have built a wide network among key figures in the AI semiconductor industry, including Jensen Huang and executives at GIGABYTE, one of NVIDIA’s major supercomputer assembly companies. She appeared at major industry meetings as well as private dinners attended only by executives.
Megaspeed, which she runs, drew industry attention in 2024 when it moved to buy several billion dollars’ worth of advanced AI semiconductors. NYT reported that many industry insiders questioned why Megaspeed, which had appeared suddenly, was seeking to secure such a large volume of chips.
Alice Huang was also connected to a network of companies and investors centered in Shanghai and Zhejiang Province, China. These companies and investors rapidly expanded from their existing mobile video game businesses into data centers, leveraging their relationships with local officials in Shanghai.
Megaspeed has built data centers in Southeast Asia and then leased computing resources to Alibaba, one of China’s largest internet companies.
This business model became a channel through which Chinese companies could indirectly use NVIDIA’s advanced chips, which cannot be sold directly to China because of US export restrictions. The network of companies and investors was also reportedly financially linked to Chinese military agencies.
China’s Ministry of State Security is said to have greatly expanded its organization since Xi Jinping took office as president. It is now several times the size of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and conducts intelligence gathering through human intelligence networks, electronic communications surveillance, counterintelligence, and other activities.
Peter Mattis, a former CIA counterintelligence analyst, said Chinese intelligence agencies have made acquiring advanced technology a major operational objective. China, he said, sees technology as a key competitive field in its pursuit of economic leadership.
The allegations emerged as Jensen Huang has continued to urge the US government to ease restrictions on exports of AI semiconductors to China.
Jensen Huang has argued that US semiconductor companies should be allowed access to the Chinese market so they can compete with Huawei, China’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, and ultimately slow the pace of Huawei’s AI technology development.
In 2025, Jensen Huang persuaded US President Donald Trump and helped bring about a relaxation of the ban on sales of some AI semiconductors to China. As a result, NVIDIA was allowed to sell lower-performance chips to China.
Trump and Jensen Huang later reached an agreement allowing NVIDIA to sell its second-highest-performing chip in China, with the US government taking 25% of the sales revenue.
President Trump also considered allowing NVIDIA’s latest chip, Blackwell, to be sold in China, but later withdrew the proposal.
[email protected] Kim Ye-ji Reporter