US officials believed that Alice Huang had been recruited to spy by China’s top intelligence agency, the New York Times reported, external. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
Alice Huang, no relation to Jensen Huang, was a top executive at Singapore-based data centre firm Megaspeed between March and November 2023.
The company had been suspected of helping divert Nvidia chips to China. Nvidia said this was investigated and debunked.
However, Megaspeed is under investigation by the Singapore government regarding previous allegations that the company was circumventing US sanctions on the export of Nvidia’s high-end chips.
The BBC has contacted Megaspeed for comment.
Surveillance reportedly revealed communications between Alice Huang and an American citizen, who was subsequently identified as Jensen Huang.
It remains unclear what, if any, intelligence Alice Huang – who is also known as Huang Le – allegedly gathered and passed to Beijing.
When the BBC asked Nvidia if the company was aware of intelligence concerns, the company said it was not.
“We trust that if we were the target of a genuine threat, the US government would have notified us,” an Nvidia spokesperson told the BBC.
China has rejected the spying allegations.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said: “The allegations about Chinese spies are entirely groundless, speculative and intended to smear and malign China.”
There were media reports in October that US President Donald Trump had been briefed last year on intelligence alleging Alice Huang was spying on China’s behalf.
On whether he wished he had “acted on the intelligence”, Trump told journalists: “No, I don’t think so. I think he’s [Jensen Huang] an honourable guy.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, refused to comment when asked about Jensen Huang.
In spring this year, the secretary of state reportedly oversaw the drafting of a memo that warned the Trump administration about Jensen Huang’s relationship with the Chinese businesswoman.
