American officials have concluded that a Singapore data center executive suspected of helping steer Nvidia chips to China is a Chinese intelligence asset who grew close to Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, according to a New York Times report, citing anonymous individuals briefed on the matter.
The executive, Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, is a Chinese citizen and top official at Megaspeed. US officials already suspected her of helping China evade limits on advanced AI chips. US officials began investigating her company in late 2024, after a Commerce Department official visiting its Malaysia data center found Nvidia equipment still in boxes, which suggested it was in transit and not installed. Singapore authorities questioned her in 2025 and released her.
The new intelligence came from monitoring her communications. Sources familiar with the monitoring said it showed her in contact with an American citizen, and a process called unmasking, which identifies Americans caught in foreign surveillance, named the citizen as the Nvidia chief. That raised the prospect that she learned how President Donald Trump views China, a topic likely to surface when he travels there next month, and raised questions about whether she was gathering information on Nvidia itself.
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Trump was briefed on the findings roughly a year ago and took no action, which the report ties to concern about Nvidia’s chip sales and trade with China. Sources said Jensen Huang has received no warning of the kind given to Americans targeted by foreign spies, and the monitoring of Alice Huang continues. Officials did not believe at the time that he knew of her role, and it’s unclear whether they have revised that view. But some senior officials doubt he could have stayed unaware.
Nvidia spokesman John Rizzo said Huang’s interactions with her were “not unusual or unexpected” and that customers like Megaspeed get only ordinary business information, nothing touching trade secrets or national security. The company said it had already looked into and dismissed claims that Megaspeed smuggled chips to China. Jensen Huang made the same point in a Thursday interview, calling the relationship routine and saying Nvidia confirmed Megaspeed has not illegally sent its chips there.
Megaspeed said it had retained outside counsel, and told the US government it will cooperate and “welcomes formal, evidence-based investigation.” A person familiar with the company said Alice Huang has become less active since the US investigations began.
Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Chang accused Washington of “groundless smears and slanders.” The White House, CIA and National Security Agency declined to comment. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote on X that Huang and the company’s directors “owe Congress answers.” Nvidia shares closed down 0.8% Thursday.
Administration officials said the Commerce Department’s investigation of Megaspeed passed to the Justice Department this year. Investigators suspect some of the Nvidia chips the company handles reach China illegally. Megaspeed buys the chips, some from the US arm of Chinese server maker Inspur, and rents the computing power to Chinese firms, among them its primary client, Alibaba. A Malaysian sister company spent at least $4.8 billion on equipment built around Nvidia chips from June 2024 to February 2026, per ImportGenius trade records, and Megaspeed and its affiliates kept buying Nvidia products this year. Nvidia still lists Megaspeed as a cloud partner on its website.
Read: MI5 and Dutch Intelligence Raise Separate Chinese Espionage Alarms on the Same Day
Jensen Huang has lobbied the Trump administration to loosen AI regulations and chip export limits. Trump approved sales of an older Nvidia chip generation to China for a share of the revenue, and current and former officials say his relationship with Huang has stalled investigations and proposed sanctions at Commerce.
Read: US Clears Nvidia H200 Sales to China’s Biggest AI Firms
