Report Says US Officials Believe Chinese Spy Targeted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, passed intelligence to Beijing and developed a close relationship with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, the New York Times reported Thursday, citing unnamed people briefed on the surveillance. She is no relation to him. Officials had earlier suspected Megaspeed of helping China evade U.S. export limits on advanced Nvidia AI chips. Surveillance showed her in contact with an American citizen, whom the unmasking process identified as Jensen Huang, the sources said. President Trump was briefed about a year ago and took no action. The sources said Huang has not received a defensive briefing, surveillance of her continues, and officials did not believe at the time that he knew what she was doing, though some senior administration officials doubt he could have missed it. Nvidia said Megaspeed is one of its regional cloud customers, that Huang speaks with thousands of customers a year, that customers get no trade secrets or national security information, and that the diversion allegations were investigated and debunked last year.

The Daily Mail, the right-leaning outlet, leads with a 'glamorous female spy' who the CIA believed was smuggling chips, calls Huang, 63, one of the world's richest men, and says officials were stunned by his name. It describes her as Megaspeed's CEO, and its opening has no Nvidia rebuttal. The Guardian and New York Times, on the left, use more restrained headlines ('reportedly targeted', 'seen as target'). They stress Huang's closeness to Trump, White House alarm and Trump's inaction after the briefing. CNBC, an alternative outlet, differs by leading with Nvidia's denial, and ZeroHedge adds the unmasking and ongoing surveillance. All attribute the claims to the Times' anonymous sources.