The New York Times reported that US intelligence agencies are closely watching "Alice Huang," an executive at a Singapore data center company, amid suspicions that she might be a spy for the Chinese government. She is believed to be trying to build a close relationship with Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, a giant in the AI chip industry, to gain access to commercial information and assist in smuggling advanced chips to China. Nvidia has denied these claims, emphasizing that meetings with clients are standard business practice and no confidential or security information has been leaked.
The New York Times reported that US intelligence believes Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, the world's leading AI chip manufacturer, is being targeted by a Chinese woman suspected of being a government spy. This woman had previously conducted business with him and maintains a close relationship with Nvidia executives.
The woman is Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, who has no familial relation to Jensen Huang. She is an executive at Megaspeed, a company operating data centers and cloud services in Singapore.
The report states that US officials had previously suspected Huang Le of aiding in the illicit export of Nvidia chips to China. This led to increased surveillance and investigation of her activities, with an assessment that she might serve as an informant for Chinese intelligence, passing business information to Beijing. The report cites unnamed sources familiar with the surveillance.
During monitoring, US officials discovered that Huang Le developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang, a key figure in the AI industry. Nvidia's high-performance chips are crucial drivers of AI technology growth worldwide, making Jensen Huang one of the most influential executives in the sector.
Additionally, Jensen Huang had close ties to former US President Donald Trump during the period when the US government sought to maintain leadership in AI development amid competition with China. The report notes that White House officials were concerned about Huang Le's access to Nvidia executives due to Jensen Huang's close relationship with President Trump.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities stated that allegations claiming Jensen Huang, Nvidia's CEO, is the target of a Chinese espionage plan are merely "baseless speculation."
Gao Jiakun, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said during a regular press briefing, referring to a New York Times article, "The report is based on unfounded speculation and is merely an attempt to slander China."
The Trump administration imposed export controls restricting high-performance AI chip exports to China, citing national security reasons. Megaspeed has been suspected of facilitating Chinese companies in circumventing these restrictions.
However, Nvidia denied some of the allegations. A company spokesperson told the New York Times that meeting with clients is part of the CEO's duties, and Jensen Huang interacts with thousands of client executives annually. The spokesperson emphasized that clients like Megaspeed receive only general business information, not trade secrets or sensitive Nvidia data, and no information related to national security is shared.
CNBC further reported that an Nvidia spokesperson disputed content in the New York Times report, stating that Megaspeed is a regional cloud business customer and that interactions between Jensen Huang and the company's executives are normal.
The spokesperson reiterated that Nvidia customers cannot access the company's trade secrets or national security-related information. They added that if the US government believed any individual posed a threat to the American industry, the company trusts the government would notify them.
Nvidia also stated that allegations about Megaspeed potentially illicitly transferring chips to China were thoroughly investigated and proven unfounded last year.
Previously, Megaspeed was investigated for suspected assistance in circumventing US export controls on AI chips, which prohibit certain chip models from being shipped to China. Nvidia acknowledged awareness of this investigation.
An Nvidia spokesperson added that the Chinese government does not seek Nvidia products through regional cloud providers like Megaspeed. Instead, the Chinese government has halted imports of US AI chips to protect its domestic industry, causing US tech companies to record losses on many products.
The AI competition forces Nvidia to operate amid US political pressures, as its chips are essential tools for AI developers worldwide, while also becoming a bargaining chip in the US-China economic rivalry.
Some politicians and analysts warn that Nvidia's AI chips might be used to develop AI models for the Chinese military or commercial technologies that could compete with and potentially surpass US technologies.
Recently, Jensen Huang has appeared alongside Trump at foreign leader receptions, AI conferences, and multiple overseas trips, while also lobbying the US government to permit exports of certain Nvidia chips to China.
Earlier this year, the US government allowed Nvidia to export the H200 chip to China, but Chinese regulators did not permit its import. The H200 is part of Nvidia's Hopper family, preceding the higher-performance Blackwell chip used by US AI developers.
Meanwhile, the New York Post reported that Huang Le's employment history includes work at leading Chinese TV media organizations and major global financial institutions before entering investment and technology business.
Her online profile states she worked as a reporter for Hunan TV and China Central Television (CCTV), served as assistant to the private banking president at HSBC, and was vice president of securities business at CITIC Securities.
Additionally, her profile in the Chinese private equity database Simuwang lists her as a fund manager and executive director at Shanghai Hexi Investment Management, with four years of media experience and eight years in securities business.
However, the New York Post noted that no reporter records of Huang Le appear on the Hunan TV or CCTV websites. A Hunan TV executive interviewed said they had never heard of her and suggested that if she had worked as a reporter, her name or profile would likely be found on the stations' websites.
The report also notes that Megaspeed was originally a Singapore branch of 7Road, a Chinese online gaming company partially owned by central and local government entities. Huang Le's Shanghai Hexi fund reportedly invested in 7Road, according to reports published last year.
Megaspeed can import Nvidia's high-performance chips worth millions of US dollars because it is registered in Singapore, not China. However, reports indicate the company provides processing power rentals to Chinese companies including Alibaba, raising suspicions about the chips' use in China.
According to Bloomberg, Megaspeed imported approximately 136,000 Nvidia GPUs by November 2025, but Nvidia inspectors found only a few thousand of the latest models in the company's data centers. This prompted questions about the whereabouts of the remaining chips.
The US Department of Commerce investigated whether Megaspeed facilitated illicit chip exports to China and submitted findings to the Department of Justice this year. Singapore authorities questioned Huang Le in 2025 but released her without charges.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the US told the New York Post that China opposes defaming Chinese citizens by spreading so-called "Chinese spy" stories.
Megaspeed told the New York Times that it hired outside lawyers to review the matter but did not answer New York Post questions. Reporters were unable to reach Huang Le for comment.