- US intelligence alleges Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had a relationship with a suspected Chinese spy
- Alice Huang, linked to Nvidia's Singapore customer, is believed recruited by China
- House Republicans requested Jensen Huang to brief on foreign espionage concerns on November 18
Before Donald Trump flew to Beijing in May, a US intelligence memo about Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang circulated among a small group of senior officials.
It alleged that Huang had been romantically involved with Alice Huang, an executive at one of Nvidia's Singapore customers. US intelligence believes China's Ministry of State Security recruited her as a spy, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
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The White House and CIA declined to comment on the report. Nvidia declined to comment on the memo or the allegation of a romantic relationship. Nvidia has previously described the pair's interactions as routine customer contact, saying its chief executive speaks with “thousands of customer executives every year”.
Congress wants answers behind closed doors
The report follows an account in The New York Times that US intelligence had identified Jensen Huang as the target of a Chinese spying operation. The Republican chairs of three House committees, Brian Mast, John Moolenaar and Rick Crawford, have asked Huang to brief them on November 18. They want to hear about his interactions with Alice Huang and how Nvidia protects itself against foreign espionage.
The chairs asked him to accept the date or propose another by November 11.
Alice Huang worked at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based Nvidia customer that US authorities have scrutinised over suspicions that advanced chips were diverted to China in breach of export controls. Nvidia says its own investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing. The company has also said its regional cloud customers receive routine business information and have no access to sensitive Nvidia trade secrets.
The fight over Nvidia's chips
Jensen Huang had personally lobbied Trump to allow Nvidia to sell its H200 chips to Chinese customers, the FT reported. The administration authorised sales with conditions in January, but shipments had stalled by the time of the May summit. Huang was absent from the original list of executives accompanying Trump to Beijing. After the president called him, he caught up with Air Force One in Alaska and boarded during the refuelling stop.
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