A Chinese businesswoman who built a close relationship with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to collect information on him, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing a memo circulated among policymakers in the Trump administration.
The woman is Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese national and an executive at Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based data-center company that buys Nvidia's advanced artificial intelligence chips. She is not related to Jensen Huang. The Financial Times reported separately that a U.S. government memo drafted earlier this year from intelligence described a romantic relationship between the two, and that U.S. officials believe she was recruited by the ministry, China's main spy agency.
The memo was shared with a small group of senior officials shortly before President Donald Trump traveled to Beijing in May for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to the reports. The memo has not been made public, and no charges have been brought against either person. The Times reported last week that U.S. spy agencies had electronically monitored Alice Huang for at least a year, and that Trump was told about her relationship with Huang last year but chose to take no action.
On Friday, the Republican chairs of three House committees asked Jensen Huang to appear for a closed-door briefing on November 18 about his dealings with Alice Huang, Axios reported. Nvidia has denied the allegations as "baseless" and declined to comment on the memo, while the White House and the CIA also declined to comment. China has called the claims "groundless speculation."
Speaking to reporters at his annual Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump said he wanted to continue backing Huang but would wait for further information before concluding. "I would like to say yes. I mean, unless we find out something to the contrary," Trump said when asked whether he still had confidence in Huang as an adviser on U.S. technology policy. "I've always found Jensen Huang to be very aboveboard. But you know, you're dealing in a very complex issue."
Huang has been a central figure in the administration's chip policy, successfully lobbying during Trump's second term to reverse stricter export controls on the company's chip shipments to China and finalizing a deal that permits the U.S. government to secure a 25 percent stake in specific Nvidia processors authorized for sale to China. He and his wife traveled to Mar-a-Lago to persuade Trump to allow technology firms to continue doing business with Beijing.
